L’Oreal Beats $50 Million Trade Secret, Patent Award on Appeal

L’Oreal USA Inc. convinced the Federal Circuit to overturn a trial court ruling ordering it to pay $50 million for stealing trade secrets and infringing two patents on a hair-bleaching system.

Patent owner Olaplex Inc. failed to provide sufficient evidence that its method of protecting hair during the bleaching process was secret when L’Oreal allegedly misappropriated it, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in a nonprecedential opinion.

The Federal Circuit also ordered a new trial on patent infringement based on its March 4 decision lifting an injunction blocking L’Oreal from selling competing products because there ...