The Delhi High Court has, in a suit filed by Luxottica, the owner of eyewear brand, Rayban, restrained several shop owners of New Delhi from selling counterfeit Rayban sunglasses.

The court has also ordered a crackdown on shops spread across the city dealing in the counterfeit product. Justice S. Muralidhar has appointed local commissioners and empowered them to seize fake sunglasses from shops, factories and warehouses. The court has directed the commissioners to make an inventory and produce them before the court.

Luxottica, an Italian group which owns Ray-Ban, have complained of massive commercial losses due to the sale of counterfeits. They tabled evidence, cheap imitations, that were collected from various stores by hired private investigators. Pravin Anand, Managing Partner of Anand & Anand represented Luxottica along with Shrawan Chopra.

The order of the High Court relies upon the 'John Doe' or the 'Ashok Kumar' principle, a principle that has rarely found application in Indian cases.. John Doe orders are passed to enable seizure of infringing goods and operate against any potential defendant, who is identified subsequently. The order of the Court aims at restraining not only the identified parties who are illegally selling trademarked products, but also those who supply the counterfeit products, who are yet to be identified. The order impacts those who might be infringing, or inclined to infringe, even though their identities are not yet known.