The litigation funder financing the second of two recently settled shareholder class actions against Murray Goulburn will face similar scrutiny over its commission as the funder behind the first action.
Former Wallabies player Israel Folau, who was sacked over homophobic social media posts, has increased the damages he is seeking in his unfair dismissal case against Rugby Australia, calling for $14 million in compensation as “Australia’s best player”.
Motorola has urged the Full Federal Court to uphold a decision dismissing an amended defence by Chinese rival Hytera Communications that sought to blame the US tech company for not alerting it to the alleged theft of its source code sooner, saying a similar argument had already failed in an ongoing trade secrets case in the US.
Garmin has reached a settlement in a competition case brought by its former exclusive Australian distributor alleging the GPS technology giant misused its market power after the supplier refused to give up its five best customers.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s insurance division, CommInsure, has pleaded guilty to 87 criminal charges that it hawked life insurance products in unsolicited telephone calls, but wants credit for the early plea.
Rio Tinto subsidiary Technological Resources has successfully challenged a decision by IP Australia to reject a patent application for a method of separating mined material, with a judge finding the claimed invention was not a collection of mere working directions as a delegate had found.
Whether judges can alter the terms of litigation funding agreements in class actions is a question that will remain unsettled for now, after litigation funder IMF Bentham chose to sidestep a lengthy, costly and risky challenge to the reach of the court’s powers.
Monster Energy has launched another Federal Court case against Vittoria Food & Beverage seeking to block the coffee maker from trading on the popularity of its Mother energy drink brand, and the beverage giant will have to convince the court that its brand is not so strong that confusion among consumers is not likely.
Litigation funder Augusta Ventures has brought its promised appeal of a groundbreaking ruling that put it on the hook for paying security for costs in an employment class action over the classification of casual mine workers.
Certain claims in a shareholder class action against insolvent training company Vocation and auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers have been dropped, as the long-running case awaits a new trial date pending the outcome of a separate Full Court appeal.