A Delaware federal judge on Thursday blocked a bid to halt L’Oreal from selling a line of hair care products, ruling that a competitor and one-time acquisition target was unlikely to prove that the cosmetics giant had infringed on the patent underlying its innovative hair treatment system.
The ruling was a setback for California-based Olaplex, which had accused L’Oreal of stealing its trade secrets after abandoning merger talks in 2015. The company said L’Oreal had violated the terms of a nondisclosure agreement and incorporated its proprietary information into three products that compete directly with Olaplex’s sole product line in the newly created “bond builder” category.
