Olaplex granted preliminary injunction against L’Oréal
A US district court has granted two haircare brands a preliminary injunction against L’Oréal after it accused the cosmetics company of infringing one of its patents.
On Friday, April 26, the District Court for the District of Delaware agreed with a magistrate judge that the active ingredient required by the patent-in-dispute is sufficiently present in L’Oréal’s accused products.
The patent in dispute (US number 9,498,419) covers “keratin treatment formulations and methods” for hair care products.
In 2017, Olaplex and Liqwd accused L’Oréal of infringing the patent. L’Oréal denied infringement and sought to invalidate the patent.
In their argument for a preliminary injunction, Olaplex and Liqwd said they had a reasonable likelihood of success in their infringement action against L’Oréal.
The court agreed with Olaplex that the ‘419 patent satisfies “a long-felt but unmet need, and that scientific data prior to the ‘419 patent teaches away from the invention”.
It said that Olaplex was likely to succeed on the merits regarding the non-obviousness of the ‘419 patent in light of the prior art.
The court also said Olaplex had shown it would suffer irreparable harm if a preliminary injunction was not granted.
It said Olaplex had presented evidence showing “actual monetary harm and reputational harm”, whereas L’Oréal did not submit any evidence to counter this.
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