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19 November 2019PatentsRory O'Neill

Olaplex bats away L’Oréal patent appeal

The English Court of Appeal yesterday, November 18 handed California haircare start-up  Olaplex a victory in its feud with  L’Oréal, after ruling that the California start-up’s patent is valid.

The patent relates to Olaplex’s Bond Multiplier product, which is used to protect hair during bleaching treatments.

L’Oréal launched its own competing Smartbond product in 2015, which Olaplex contends is based on its own proprietary technology.

The companies have traded blows over the hair protection treatments in courts on both sides of the Atlantic. In August, the US District Court for the District of Delaware  ordered L’Oréal to pay nearly $50 million for infringing Olaplex patents and misappropriating the California company’s trade secrets.

While L’Oréal appeals that decision to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Olaplex has won another victory at a UK appeals court.

In  yesterday’s judgment, the English Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal brought by L’Oréal, which argued that the Olaplex patents should be invalidated.

The French cosmetics giant had argued that Olaplex was wrongfully allowed to amend a claim of its patent because the amendment extended its protection period. L’Oréal also argued that the amended claim is obvious over a Korean patent application.

Tiffany Walden, chief operating officer and general counsel at Olaplex, said: “After three years of litigation and appeals, we are grateful that yet another court found Olaplex’s patents valid and infringed by L’Oreal.

“We look forward to their removal from their products from the market in the UK,” Walden added.

Stephen Bennett, partner at  Hogan Lovells, representing Olaplex, said that the decision “confirms that big players can’t rip off true innovators with immunity”.

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More on this story

Patents
21 August 2019   Cosmetics company L’Oréal will need to pay nearly $50 million for infringing patents and misappropriating trade secrets that belong to rival Olaxplex, according to a Delaware judge.
Patents
12 June 2018   The English High Court has said that Smartbond Step 1, a hair repair product sold by cosmetics brand L’Oréal, infringes a patent licensed by California-based Olaplex.