Call it the case of “patent or perish.” A lawyer formerly in charge of applying for patents in cosmetics company L’Oreal SA’s U.S. office claims he was fired in December for refusing to make filings for dubious inventions just so the company could fill an annual quota. L’Oreal pledged to fight the allegations.
Steven Trzaska said in a complaint filed April 16 in Newark, N.J., that L’Oreal ordered him to apply for at least 40 patents last year to help fill a companywide global quota of 500 applications (Trzaska v. L’Oreal USA, Inc., D.N.J., 2:15-cv-02713, complaint filed 4/16/15). ...
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