Judges

The Full Federal Court has handed Johnson & Johnson unit Ethicon a victory in the class action over its allegedly defective vaginal mesh devices, partly reversing a judge's decision that expanded the class post-trial.

An urgent injunction sought by US-based Millennium Pharmaceuticals to block generic drug maker Dr Reddy's Laboratories from launching a cheap version of the breakthrough cancer drug Velcade has been panned as unnecessary.

Companies breaching the Australian Consumer Law will be hit with higher fines after the Federal Parliament on Thursday passed a bill that aligns the maximum penalties with fines for competition law violations.

A maker of guard rails used on highways has won a judgment invalidating a rival's patent, with a judge finding the patent lacks novelty.

The Public Trustee of Queensland asked a court Wednesday for indemnity costs from a global litigation funder its says was the "real moving force" behind a dismissed investor class action it called a "nakedly speculative venture".

The bitter dispute between Gina Rinehart and two of her children over billions of dollars in iron ore mining assets may come down to how the High Court interprets a single word in an arbitration clause of agreements signed by the warring family members.

A group of Indigenous Australians has failed to block Adani Mining's $16 billion development of the proposed Carmichael coal mine in central Queensland, with a judge dismissing the claims as "void of merit".

Global pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis has launched patent infringement proceedings against generic drug maker Alphapharm seeking "urgent interlocutory relief" to prevent a generic injector pen from being listed on the market.

Fundraising company Appco Group Australia has failed in its bid to put a massive sham contracting class action in the Federal Court on hold while it fights a ruling that let the case continue as a representative proceeding.

A helicopter passenger who suffered serious injuries in an accident near Alice Springs has lost a challenge to the dismissal of his case, with an appeals court ruling a Slater & Gordon lawyer's defective statement of claim -- lodged on the last day of the limitations period -- was not accepted by a registry of the Northern Territory Supreme Court.