US fashion house Ralph Lauren has launched a drive to clean up the Indian market of fake and counterfeit products mostly under its Polo brand, before opening its store in the country possibly next year. Ralph Lauren’s lawyers last week conducted raids on a Hyderabad-based company that operated half a dozen ‘Lauren Polo’ branded outlets and seized 6,000 shirts, Tshirts, jeans and other products with the Polo logo.

S K Bansal, a lawyer representing Ralph Lauren stated this was a big seizure and more than 6,000 pieces of garments were seized and their hoardings were removed. He further stated the company has filed around 60 cases in various courts over the years against companies and individuals that manufactured or sold counterfeit Polo Ralph Lauren products.

Jagdeep Kumar Sharma, a lawyer stated that they confiscated about 900 trousers, about 500 shirts and others after the raids on Lauren Polo outlets. The company is planning to change name of its five outlets after coming since it has come under “objection”.

According to the sources, Ralph Lauren, which sells fashion clothing and accessories for men, women and kids, is in talks with Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail for opening to open franchisee Ralph Lauren-branded brick-and-mortar outlets. The company launched by US fashion designer Ralph Lauren is also in negotiations with Myntra for online selling rights.