The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has lost a bid to have the Federal Court decide a threshold legal question in its dodgy home loan case against Westpac, which is going to trial after a $35 million settlement got the thumbs down.
The consumer watchdog has sought more than $1.5 million in penalties against debt collector ACM Group after the company was found liable for harassing vulnerable customers, but a judge on Tuesday questioned whether the fine, which could leave the company insolvent, was too punitive.
The Commissioner of Patents will seek to toss a case simultaneously challenging its decisions to accept, grant and certify an innovation patent owned by one of Australia’s biggest building product firms.
The corporate cop’s case against Westpac over allegedly irresponsible lending practices will go to trial after the Federal Court rejected the bank’s $35 million settlement.
Former HWL Ebsworth special counsel Dr Gary Rumble’s insistence that he believed he had carte blanche to criticise one of the law firm’s clients is an “untenable stretch,” the Federal Court heard Wednesday.
A court has ruled that Chinese vitamin company Nature’s Care cannot sell its imported fish oil and vitamin D with the ‘Made in Australia’ logo because the product fails to meet the required country-of-origin labelling provisions.
The judge overseeing the complex liquidation of failed auction house Mossgreen has denied leave to proceed to vendors who received nothing from the sale of their art collections.
Motorola Solutions wants to amend its pleadings in an ongoing patent case against Shenzen-based Hytera Communications to add copyright claims relating to the source code for the radio devices at the centre of the dispute.
The Federal Court has thrown out a proposed $35 million settlement between ASIC and Westpac over responsible lending breaches, saying the agreement was “unworkable” and left the court in an “information vacuum”.
A software-implemented business method could be patentable if programmed into a computer with “some ingenuity”, IP Australia told the Full Federal Court as a landmark appeal between rival tech companies Encompass and Infotrack wrapped up Friday.