Facing a trade mark infringement lawsuit for selling products under the name Scotch Whisky, Australian liquor retailer D’Aquino Bros has filed a claim of its own, arguing the words are a generic description used in Australia to mean any whisky from Scotland.
Liquidators for failed engineering services company Hastie Group have a fight on their hands over tens of millions of dollars in unpaid invoices from construction companies, with major builders claiming not only that they don’t have to pay, but that the bills aren’t payable.
An Australian mortgage investment manager has been hit with a class action, alleging it charged excessive fees on loans and made misleading representations to borrowers.
AMP has prevailed in a hard-fought fight over where it will defend five shareholder class actions brought in the wake of the Banking Royal Commission, in a precedent-setting judgement that provides a road map for future jurisdictional battles over competing class actions.
The Full Federal Court will hear arguments next week in an appeal by the ACCC over an alleged laundry detergent cartel, the first so-called hub and spoke case brought by the competition regulator.
A Copyright Tribunal decision that led to substantially lower sound recording licence fees for Foxtel was “beyond the pale” because it compared fees charged to the cable TV giant with those charged to fitness centres, the Full Federal Court heard Wednesday.
Embattled financial giant AMP on Tuesday criticised concerns raised by lawyers for the federal class actions about group members’ opt out rights, saying the concerns were a “red herring” in the fight against an order transferring their cases to the NSW Supreme Court.
AMP has slammed arguments that group members in four Federal Court class actions could face a jurisdictional limitation on their claims of disclosure breaches if their cases are transferred to state court, saying no such disadvantage exists.
Treasury Wine Estates has gone on the offensive in an intellectual property dispute with Melbourne-based “wine in a can” maker Barokes, launching court proceedings alleging the company’s patents are invalid and claiming it made “unjustified threats” against the Penfolds maker.
The Full Federal Court expressed doubts Tuesday about an “unusual” and “heavy handed” order restraining lawyers leading the stayed class actions against GetSwift from advising their clients about whether to opt out of the prevailing action.