A defamation claim against Merck and its in-house counsel can’t proceed because it rested on a letter stating the lawyer’s opinion, which is not capable of being defamatory, a federal judge has ruled.

The letter written from Merck’s in-house lawyer to the plaintiff was also copied to five other people, but fell far short of the standard for defamation, said U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.