Companies

A group of IP lawyers has warned the Government will have to proceed carefully in establishing a mandatory code under which Google and Facebook would be forced to pay news publishers for content, saying such a move could be struck down under existing High Court precedent.

Cheese maker Saputo's proposed trade mark for an adorable cheese cartoon figure is substantially identical to Bega's intellectual property for a 'smiling anthropomorphised' cheese biped and cannot be trade marked, a delegate of the trade marks office has found.

Animal health company Abbey Laboratories has successfully challenged an application by rival Bayer Australia for a patent covering a treatment for biting lice.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has become the latest Big Four bank to be hit with a class action over the sales of allegedly worthless insurance products.

Domino's is seeking to strike out portions of the "rolled up, confusing pleading" in a class action over alleged worker underpayments, saying the case cannot be brought under the consumer law.

Google has been ordered to hand over details of an online reviewer’s identity to gangland lawyer Zarah Garde-Wilson so she can pursue a potential defamation and misleading and deceptive conduct case against the reviewer, which she alleges is a rival law firm.

Gaming giant Aristocrat Technologies has succeeded in its appeal of an IP Australia decision rejecting four of its gaming patents, with a judge finding they were "not a mere scheme" but an actual manner of manufacture.

ASIC has launched a bid to gain access to legal advice provided by Ashurst to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group in the regulator's case over $35 million in allegedly illegal bank fees.

A judge has approved a $5 million penalty against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for overcharging customers $8 million in fees and interest on its agricultural products, despite previously expressing concerns that the penalty was "on the light side".

The failings that led to enforcement action against Westpac over 23 million alleged breaches of financial crime laws were ones of omission, and not the result of intentional wrongdoing, according to an independent report released by the bank on Thursday.