The High Court has been asked to weigh in on whether online ads targeting Australian consumers can be the basis for a trade mark registration, in a long-running intellectual property spat between the maker of Mother Energy drinks and Vittoria Coffee over their respective ‘mother’ marks.
Coffee brand Vittoria can’t transfer a case over the trade mark for rival Moccona’s instant coffee jar from one Federal Court registry to another, with a judge reminding the company that the court was “well into the 21st century” and could livestream hearings without the need for interstate travel.
Shine Lawyers can deduct 50 per cent of its fees and all of its costs from a $300 million settlement in pelvic mesh class actions against Johnson & Johnson while a judge mulls whether the law firm’s total bill is fair and reasonable.
Moccona’s instant coffee jar shape trade mark should be cancelled because the mark is functional and can’t distinguish the company’s goods, the owner of coffee brand Vittoria argues in a trade mark infringement cross-claim.
The NSW state racing authority has won access to communications between public relations firm Cato & Clive and five other racing bodies, including Racing Victoria, as it weighs a lawsuit alleging they plotted to exclude the body from the Australian horseracing industry.
The owners of Mother energy drinks and Vittoria Food & Beverage have both lost their challenges to each other’s ‘Motherland’ and ‘Mothersky’ trade marks and are considering taking the long-running stoush to the High Court.
A judge has approved a $300 million settlement in two pelvic mesh class actions against Johnson & Johnson and unit Ethicon — the largest settlement in the history of Australian product liability group proceedings — but a $100 million deduction for legal costs has yet to get the greenlight.
Boston Scientific’s $105 million settlement of a class action over its pelvic mesh devices has secured court approval, but the costs billed by the law firm running the case will face further scrutiny.
The reputation of a registered trade mark and its owner is not relevant in assessing the deceptive similarity of a challenged mark, the High Court has found, clarifying the test for infringement under a section of the Trade Marks Act.
A trade mark stoush between the owners of coffee brands Moccona and Vittoria is “all about whether people think a jar means Moccona”, a court has heard.