An infringement ruling against US singer Katy Perry in a case brought by an Australian fashion designer is a “win for the little guy”, experts say, showing that fame doesn’t give celebrities a blank cheque to exploit their brand at the expense of someone’s else’s registered trade mark.
In what a judge has dubbed a “tale of two women, two teenage dreams and one name”, US pop star Katy Perry has lost her bid to cancel the “Katie Perry” trade mark owned by an Australian designer and has been barred her from using her stage name to market clothing merchandise.
A consortium of parmigiano reggiano producers has lost its opposition to registration of a parmesan trade mark in Australia by an international group dedicated to protecting common names from being monopolised.
A judge has refused American International Group’s bid to withdraw an admission that directors of defunct advisory firm Linchpin Capital were covered under a D&O policy in an investor class action that has settled against everyone but the insurer.
Senior restructuring and insolvency lawyers have welcomed a novel ruling that found a liquidator was entitled to claim his costs ahead of the preferred claims of company employees, but questions remain about the “potentially difficult” interaction between two conflicting priority regimes.
A judge won’t stay a reference process which US company Fluor claims is infected with bias, in a “monumental” dispute with energy giant Santos that has already generated a $57.5 million legal bill for the engineering firm.
A judge has granted a discovery bid by two of Gina Rinehart’s children as a long-running fight over ownership of a valuable mining tenement nears trial, and has rejected her company’s argument that they were solely responsible for dragging out a dispute over documents.
The litigation funder bankrolling two competition class actions against Apple and Google has lost its bid to see evidence filed in a similar case by developer Epic Games, after concerns were raised about its potential use in overseas proceedings against Apple.
A unit of Purdue Pharma has fired off a cross-claim in Australian drug maker AUPharma’s lawsuit alleging the US drug giant was wrongly granted patent extensions for oxycodone products marketed as Targin.
Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has lost its bid to avoid producing documents to Bianca Rinehart and John Hancock after a judge rejected arguments the Rinehart children were abusing the court’s processes in a long-running dispute over ownership of a valuable mining tenement.