Federal Circuit Lifts L’Oreal Sales Ban In Feud With Startup

L’Oreal USA Inc. escaped an order that would have blocked it from selling certain hair bleaching products, after the Federal Circuit found a lower court was too quick to say the company infringed a startup’s patented technology.

L’Oreal appealed after the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware found it infringed two patents and barred it from selling bond-builder hair care products. Only a handful of claims in one patent survived a parallel review at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said there were “genuine questions” about whether L’Oreal infringed ...