Baker McKenzie

DC Comics is appealing a decision that found 'kryptonite diet' could be registered as a trade mark because the Superman-derived word has become somewhat generic, a ruling that's kryptonite for the Warner Bros-owned company which relies heavily on monetising its IP.

A Sydney businessman has emerged victorious in a fight with DC Comics over his bid to register a 'kryptonite diet' logo as a trade mark.

Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson are heading for a two-week hearing in October over coverage of the presenter’s legal expenses incurred in defending Bruce Lehrmann’s unsuccessful defamation case.

Trial in a case alleging Mastercard misused its market power by striking deals with retailers to defend revenues against EFTPOS routing has heard external competition lawyers suggested removing the word 'routing' from its contract with Woolworths.

Mastercard risked losing half its revenue from retail interchange fees as a result of the Reserve Bank's least-cost routing initiative, and struck deals with top retailers to defend its core business, a court was told Wednesday.

A trial judge has heard that Mastercard's top Australian executives discussed stripping Woolworths of strategic merchant status if the supermarket giant routed customer transactions through the cheaper EFTPOS network.

Mastercard's Australia boss was anxious to sign a deal with Woolworths on payments processing after learning that Coles had chosen to route all debit transactions through the cheaper EFTPOS network, a court has heard.

Mastercard considered threatening Coles with losing its discounted interchange fees to rival Woolworths if the supermarket chain re-routed customer debit and credit transactions away from the payments giant, a trial judge has heard in the ACCC's misuse of market power case.

Mastercard's APAC head was "perfectly comfortable" with the threat of removal of discounted interchange rates to cut a deal with Coles to route transactions through its payment network, a court has heard.

A judge said Tuesday evidence in a case over the sale of a stake in Melbourne Airport's operator might justify a finding that shareholder Dexus acted unethically and immorally. But whether such a finding was relevant to the validity of a default notice at the centre of the suit is another matter.