Global property giant REA Group has blocked a trade mark application by Real Estate Store, a new venture of a former director of Reserve Hotel Group, with IP Australia finding there was a “real and tangible danger” that consumers would think the companies were connected.
The corporate cop has launched action against banking giant Westpac for allegedly selling worthless add-on credit card insurance to unwitting customers, the first of what could be a series of cases against banks in the wake of a remediation program that has returned $250 million to hundreds of thousands of account holders with 11 major lenders.
Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon unit is facing a second class action over its allegedly defective pelvic mesh products, following a landmark ruling that found the drug company did not adequately warn about the devices’ risks.
Deloitte is seeking to set aside a subpoena for documents recording chats with partners about retirement after they turned 62, in a closely watched age discrimination lawsuit challenging the accounting firm’s mandatory retirement policy.
A judge has found that news articles published in the Herald Sun, Daily Mail and The Australian may have given group members in a class action against a Telstra contractor the “wrong impression” that they would be exposed to a cross-claim if they failed to opt out.
Fairfax has settled long-running defamation proceedings brought by former Leighton Holdings CFO Peter Gregg over 11 articles that accused him of corruption, after he won an appeal last year overturning his conviction on related criminal charges.
Global investment bank Credit Suisse has launched legal action in the wake of the collapse of Greensill Capital seeking to wind up two firms helmed by British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta, including the company behind Whyalla Steelworks.
A judge has slugged the Commonwealth Bank of Australia with a $7 million fine in proceedings brought by ASIC for excessive interest charged to thousands of overdraft customers, but noted the penalty amounted to profits from just six hours of operation for the Big Four bank.
A lengthy dispute over insurance in a settled class action against sandalwood producer Quintis has been resolved, with the Federal Court rejecting a challenge by two insurers to the rectification of policies that could provide a further $11.25 million in recoveries to group members.
A judge has allowed four Afghan witnesses who allegedly saw Ben Roberts-Smith kick a handcuffed Afghan citizen off a cliff to give evidence remotely when the Australian war veteran’s defamation case against three newspapers heads to trial in June.