Cindy Cameronne

An inventor who claims Monster Energy infringed his patent for laser etched pull tabs is fighting the beverage giant’s bid for $150,000 in security for costs, saying its estimates were “monstrous”.

The risk of a recession-fueled slowdown is the biggest worry for small and mid-size law firms this year, according to a new report, as more than 35 per cent of firms expect revenues to remain flat or decline.

Mining magnate Clive Palmer and his company Mineralogy have lost a bid to amend one of two cases that claim losses totalling $4 billion against CITIC after a judge found the amended claims would be “unfairly general”.

An appeals court has held that a Sydney solicitor can’t be sued for negligence for a failure to include a breach of contract claim in a building dispute, saying the lawyer was protected by advocate’s immunity because his decision was “intimately connected” with the litigation.

In a decade-old dispute, Viterra has lost an appeal of a judgment holding it liable to pay Cargill Australia $293 million for misrepresentations about the performance of its malt producer Joe White, which it sold to Cargill for $420 million in 2013.

Queensland lender SunshineLoans has lost its second bid for the Full Court to decide whether ASIC has the power to bring civil penalty proceedings for violations of the Credit Code, with a judge finding its arguments were not strong enough to vacate an upcoming trial.

Nine has partially won its bid to include evidence about the reputation of Euro Pacific CEO Peter Schiff in an attempt to minimise the damages it will owe after abandoning its substantive defences in defamation proceedings by the bank boss.

Drug maker Sanofi-Aventis is not liable for the federal government’s losses for excess subsidies paid for the blood-thinner Plavix after an allegedly unjustified court injunction prevented the release of a generic version of the blockbuster drug, an appeals court has found.

Discount retail chain The Reject Shop has foreshadowed two challenges to an underpayments class action, claiming store managers were not covered by the general retail award and that their allegations have to be run individually. 

Tech company Vehicle Management Systems has won a long-running patent infringement dispute with rival SARB over a sensor-based system the City of Melbourne uses for timing parked vehicles.