A judge has quietly given his seal of approval to a settlement distribution scheme in a class action against KPMG, after raising questions about Piper Alderman’s legal bill and the litigation funder’s “arguably excessive” cut of the confidential settlement.
Prosecutors are weighing criminal charges over alleged cartel conduct the subject of a price-fixing case by the ACCC against BlueScope Steel and former general manager of sales Jason Ellis, a judge has revealed in rejecting a bid by the competition watchdog to suppress details of its case.
The ACCC’s recommendation in its digital inquiry report for a statutory cause of action for serious invasions of privacy has merit as a mechanism to safeguard individual’s privacy where it is not protected by the Privacy Act or the patchwork of surveillance and related legislation. But it remains to be seen whether there will be any greater governmental impetus than on previous occasions to make the legislative changes required, writes Gilbert + Tobin partner Melissa Fai and lawyer Stephanie Essey.
A five-judge panel of the Full Federal Court has found two innovation patents by financial software company Encompass Corp. are not a manner of manufacture, but held back on providing more clarity on the test for the patentability of computer-implemented inventions.
A judge has thrown out the NRMA’s consumer case against the maritime union over its Sydney fast ferry campaign, ruling that a verdict in favour of the motoring body would have brought the “the entire field of industrial relations within the operation of consumer legislation”.
Two former directors of Tennis Australia can’t access chats between ASIC and other executives from the tennis body, with a judge finding the documents recording the communications with the potential witnesses were created in anticipation of litigation and were therefore privileged.
A simmering battle over the ‘oro’ trade mark has bubbled over, with Australian coffee giant Vittoria filing Federal Court proceedings alleging Italian competitor Lavazza has knowingly violated its trade mark for the Italian word gold.
State Street Global Advisors has been given the go-ahead to use evidence unearthed in its trade mark and copyright action against Maurice Blackburn over the iconic Fearless Girl statue as evidence in a related US lawsuit against the sculpture’s creator.
Billionaire Lindsay Fox and property magnate Max Beck have lost a dispute over the valuation of land at their jointly operated Essendon Airport, with a judge siding with the Federal Government’s method that calculated the site’s value at $349 million, not $7.1 million as claimed by their expert.
Gaming giant Aristocrat Technologies told a court that if its Lightning Link slot machine was a physical game there would be no doubt about its patentability, as trial kicked off Monday in another case that is pushing back on IP Australia’s stance on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions.