Industry super funds AustralianSuper and IFM Investors – the consortium behind the interest rate swap at the centre of the corporate watchdog’s insider trading case against Westpac — have asked a judge to shield commercially sensitive information from the public as the high-profile action unfolds.
A judge has overturned a ruling from the Australian Patent Office that shortened the amount of time available to companies under patent term extensions, saying a “liberal rather than literal” reading was needed to achieve the extension regime’s goals of compensating holders of drug patents for the lengthy time required to obtain regulatory approval to market their drugs.
Cyber security company Secure Logic Group has won an injunction barring two former executives from using confidential information, but the victory is a Pyrrhic one for the firm, whose covert surveillance of one of the executives could lead to criminal charges.
Former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has told a court that he hired a private investigator to find out whether a woman who has accused him of domestic violence had an abortion and to obtain the home addresses of six SAS soldiers set to give evidence in his defamation trial.
A judge has awarded $43 million to National Australia Bank in its lawsuit against former directors of failed retailer Dick Smith, but threw out claims against company directors brought by HSBC and the retailer’s receivers.
AMA Group has told a court it will enter early mediation in its lawsuit against former CEO Andrew Hopkins that alleges he owes $2.4 million in unauthorised expenses and repayments on an outstanding loan.
Christian Porter and silk Sue Chrysanthou have been ordered to foot the legal bill of a friend of the woman who accused Porter of rape, after she succeeded in having the barrister removed from defamation proceedings the former attorney-general brought against the ABC.
Former PricewaterhouseCoopers director Jennifer Whittaker has resolved her lawsuit with the accounting giant on the eve of trial, leaving questions about the validity of termination notices by DocuSign for a future case.
Lex Greensill will need to pay tax on $58 million in capital gains, after losing a challenge to a tax assessment which included non-Australian gains from the sale of Greensill shares distributed to the founder of the collapsed collapsed UK-based supply-chain finance firm.
War veteran Ben Roberts-Smith has said that while he was proud to have received the Victoria Cross for his actions at the 2010 battle of Tizak in Afghanistan, winning the award “put a target” on his back, with fellow soldiers seeking to undermine those they saw as tall poppies.