Category Archives: Uncategorized

This seminar will discuss recent cases which address situations including lawyers and patent attorneys acting for clients who are competitors, lawyers acting for their friends, and lawyers starting questionable court actions to achieve their client’s commercial objectives.

  Wishing you a happy and prosperous New Year!

The practice of private company Adelaide City Fines in issuing parking tickets calculated to give the impression of being “fines” issued by an official body has been found to constitute misleading and deceptive conduct in breach of the Trade Practices Act in proceedings brought by the Corporation of the City of Adelaide.

The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) has changed the way that patent details for all Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications entering New Zealand national phase are captured. From December 2008, patent details for all national phase applications will be copied from the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) database. The change in process means [...]

Justice Virginia Margaret Bell (currently of the NSW Supreme Court) has been named as a Justice of the High Court of Australia, with effect from 3 February 2009. She will be the 48th person, and the fourth woman (and the third on the current court), appointed to the High Court since federation in 1901.  She [...]

Last Friday the High Court refused to grant special leave to appeal from the Full Federal Court decision in Austal Ships Sales Pty Ltd v Stena Rederi Aktiebolag [2008] FCAFC 121. The transcript of the special leave hearing can be found here. In relation to the Full Court’s finding that despite claim 1 being incorporated [...]

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has shut down the ‘Designer Brand Outlet’ website. The ACCC alleged that false, misleading and deceptive representations were made on the website and that some of the clothes supplied were counterfeit copies. The ACCC release is here.