Former Monk Sues L’Oréal Over Anti-Aging Formula

MASSACHUSETTS, United States— A former Roman Catholic monk has filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to cosmetics big L’Oréal, accusing the corporate of stealing patented expertise in an anti-aging wrinkle cream that his charity was promoting to lift cash for the poor.

Dennis Wyrzykowski and his firm, Carmel Laboratories LLC, have been joined within the lawsuit by the College of Massachusetts Medical Faculty, which developed the expertise and licensed it to Carmel in 2009.

In response to the lawsuit, the cream, known as Easeamine, is made utilizing expertise impressed by a discovery by two UMass scientists that adenosine, a chemical compound discovered within the coronary heart, can promote pores and skin elasticity.

The lawsuit, filed in June and amended this month, alleges L’Oréal was conscious UMass held the patent for the science. It alleges L’Oréal had been denied patents due to their similarity to these granted to UMass, however the beauty firm went forward with a line of merchandise primarily based on the adenosine expertise.

Wyrzykowski, who leads a spiritual charity generally known as the Teresian Carmelites in Millbury, Massachusetts, stated in an interview Tuesday that he was promoting the cream on-line for $65 per tube to help the Carmelites work with prisoners, drug addicts, and faculty youngsters.

He stated the supply of the L’Oréal merchandise decimated the Carmelites enterprise.

“For me, L’Oréal pillaged the poor, that is what they did,” Wyrzykowski stated.

L’Oréal, which relies in Paris and has US operations in New York, has requested a US District Court docket decide in Delaware to dismiss the lawsuit. The corporate’s attorneys argue in courtroom paperwork that L’Oréal believes its use of adenosine falls exterior the College of Massachusetts patents.

“Whereas we admire the aim of the work these two organizations are doing collectively, we discover no advantage in these allegations,” L’Oréal stated in an e mail Wednesday to The Related Press. “We expressed this standpoint in lots of conversations we had with the Teresian Carmelites and their exterior authorized advisors over the previous two years.”

Mark Shelton, a spokesman for the UMass Medical Faculty, stated they weren’t concerned in drafting or submitting the lawsuit, however turned plaintiffs as a result of they’re obligated to guard the licensing settlement with Carmel.

James Dobson Jr., a now-retired cardiovascular physiologist who was one in all two UMass scientists to make the invention, stated the expertise is doubtlessly price thousands and thousands of {dollars}.

“If you understand a patent is on the market and also you willingly infringe on it, that basically upsets me,” he stated. “What additionally upsets me is that the Teresian Carmelites had been going to make use of the proceeds for the poor and deprived in central Massachusetts and that was a noble factor to do.”

Wyrzkowski stated the lack of earnings from the cream compelled him to promote property that was going for use for a religious heart and curtailed different charitable works.

The Catholic Church withdrew recognition for the Teresian Carmelites in 2008, saying they not met the standards to be a Catholic group. However the group continued as a nondenominational, nonprofit with about 15 present members, Wyrzykowski stated.

“We have mainly turned it right into a basis as a result of we had been not in a position to maintain what we had been doing due to what L’Oréal did,” he stated.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

By Pat Eaton-Robb.