IP Australia has rejected an application by US technology company Block to patent a mobile payment method, saying it does not describe a manner of manufacture — the threshold requirement tripping up many claimed computer-implemented inventions.
Texas oil giant Tri-Star has lost its bid for a referral in a dispute with natural gas exporter Australia Pacific LNG over several coal seam gas fields in Queensland and $7.6 billion in share acquisitions.
A fed-up judge has vented his frustration with the problem of competing class actions in a move that appears to punish the second filed case against Medibank. But is he right that the courts are increasingly being asked to deal with duplicative proceedings? And was his order really all that drastic?
One of the two remaining class actions against the Department of Defence over the use of alleged toxic firefighting foam at military bases across the country has settled for $132.7 million on the eve of trial, with the final case going back to mediation.
The legal profession is mourning the death of long-serving barrister and former Federal Court judge David Jackson KC, hailed as a “giant of the Australian Bar”.
More class action law firms have pounced on Downer EDI’s “accounting irregularities” that led to the company overstating profits by up to $40 million.
Automotive electronics company Directed Electronics is set to claw back $3.27 million in commission payments made to a former manager through a secret side agreement with South Korean giant Hanhwa, with a ruling on damages still to come in the five-year case.
PricewaterhouseCoopers has appointed former Telstra CEO Ziggy Switkowski to investigate the tax leaks scandal that has engulfed the firm.
A Dutch renewable energy company has brought proceedings in the Federal Court to enforce a $472 million arbitration award against Spain over changes to its energy policies, after the country lost a similar case in the High Court.
National law firm Meridian Lawyers has nabbed two senior practitioners from McCabes for its insurance group, less than a month after luring 14 lawyers and staff from its competitor.
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