Ninth Circuit Sides With Starbucks in Lawsuit Over Idea of Coffee-Flavored Lip Balm
The Ninth Circuit on Monday rejected a California company’s claim that Starbucks stole its idea for coffee-flavored lip products, citing an expired statute of limitations. Balmuccino LLC, a company with leadership that includes the relative of TV’s famed Dr. Oz, lost its bid to reignite its breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets complaint against Starbucks after a lower court sided with the coffee chain and dismissed the case in July 2023. The company’s original complaint involved the genesis of Starbucks’ S’mores Frappuccino liquid lip shade kit, launched in 2019. But the appeal came down to a technical analysis of applicable state laws and jurisdiction. Balmuccino argued California equitable tolling laws should apply to its case, not Washington state's. A three-member panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed U.S. District Court Judge John Chun’s decision, writing in an unpublished memorandum that the President Joe Biden appointee correctly applied the Evergreen State's equitable tolling laws, which are more restrictive than California’s.
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