Delhi High Court Restrains Gold Flake Counterfeiters After Police Seize 11.28 Lakh Cigarettes
Riya Rathore
22 Sept 2026 1:00 PM IST
The Delhi High Court has granted ITC Limited an ad interim injunction against a counterfeiting operation that was manufacturing fake "Gold Flake" cigarettes out of an old school building disguised as a cattle shed, after police seized goods and machinery worth an estimated ₹1.44 crore from the premises.
Justice Jyoti Singh passed the order on September 16 in a suit filed by ITC against Ravi Kishor and his associates running the operation.
ITC's "Gold Flake" trademark, adopted by its predecessor in 1905, has remained in continuous use for over a century, alongside sister marks such as Wills, Flake, Royal, Classic and Navy Cut.
ITC told the court that it maintains constant market surveillance against counterfeiting, and on September 03 received information about an illicit manufacturing operation at a premises in Village Dudhli Khadar.
It lodged a police complaint the same day, and overnight, police conducted a search and seizure at the site, an old school building camouflaged behind a board advertising a "gaushala," or cattle shed, apparently to evade detection.
About twenty workmen were found there manufacturing counterfeit "Gold Flake Premium" cigarettes.
Ravi Kishor, present at the premises and claiming to be its owner, could not produce any licence or authorisation to manufacture cigarettes or to use ITC's trademarks, and told police the raw material, packaging and machinery had been sourced from Cambodia.
Police registered an FIR against him under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Copyright Act.
The seizure included 94 cartons of ready-made counterfeit cigarettes (over 11 lakh sticks), 13 cartons of loose cigarettes, rolls of counterfeit filter paper, 124 cartons of empty packets, wholesale packaging bearing the "Gold Flake Premium" logo, and multiple automatic cigarette manufacturing machines.
The court remarked that ITC had made out a strong prima facie case, holding that its trademark registrations conferred a statutory right to exclusive use under Section 28 of the Trade Marks Act, with any violation amounting to infringement under Section 29, apart from the common law rights flowing from over a century of continuous use.
It found that "Defendants have dishonestly copied the GOLD FLAKE trademarks as also the trade dress/packaging, in every element," and that since the marks, goods, trade channels and consumer base were all identical, "confusion and deception amongst members of public are inevitable."
The court agreed that the operation was not just infringing ITC's trademark and copyright but passing off its goods, and noted that the potential public health risk from inferior, unregulated cigarettes was also a serious concern.
The court restrained the defendants and anyone acting on their behalf from manufacturing, selling, marketing or distributing the counterfeit products, or from using any of ITC's registered marks, including Gold Flake, its roundel devices, the Gold Flake Premium trade dress, Wills, Honeydew, Star device or the ITC device, or anything deceptively similar to them, till the next hearing.
For ITC: Senior Advocates Arvind Nigam and Nalin Kohli with Advocates Suhrita Majumdar, Afzal B Khan, Manya Jain, Amit Ranjan, Amit Kumar Mishra, Mitakshara Goyal, Swati Mittal, Anushka Aman, Saurav Kakroda, Ayuushman Aroraa and Anshul Malik.