A Melbourne-based craft brewery has had its ‘Urban Ale’ trade mark cancelled, with a judge finding other beer makers might want to use the words to describe their products and that cancelling the mark would be in the public interest.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s case alleging STA Travel hit customers with $1 million in hidden fees and commissions through an add-on that purported to cover the cost of flight changes will go straight to a penalties hearing after the student travel agent made admissions.
A US communications infrastructure company has filed a patent lawsuit against the Australian arm of French energy tech giant Schneider Electric, which is accused of flagrant infringement with the sale of one of its Clipsal electric socket products.
The liquidators of Melbourne-based forex trader Berndale Capital have filed examination proceedings in the Federal Court seeking to question the company’s former CEO and its other directors.
The Full Federal Court has provided clarity around additional damages in patent cases by reducing the penalties liable to be paid by an Australian fencing and gate manufacturer found to have infringed a rival’s patent for a fence base.
Defunct Dover Financial, which faces a penalty hearing next year after it was found to have misled customers with an inaptly titled ‘client protection policy’, can bring an application for evidence from the corporate regulator that the policy did not harm anyone.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has won its case against defunct financial advisor Dover Financial and its former director, who famously collapsed during the banking royal commission, with a judge saying the company engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct through its inaptly titled ‘client protection policy’.
A group of unsecured creditors of ‘Diamond Joe’ Gutnik’s mining firm Merlin Diamonds has launched a NSW Supreme Court bid to preserve their rights over security interests in the company as the clock ticks down to its impending liquidation.
Monster Energy has lost its opposition to coffee company Vittoria Food & Beverage’s proposed ‘Mothersky’ trade mark, with a delegate of the Trade Marks Office saying the energy drink company’s ‘Mother’ energy drink brand was so strong in the minds of consumers that there was no likelihood of confusion.
Bail conditions have been set for a former BlueScope Steel executive charged with obstructing an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission criminal cartel probe into the steel company, the first criminal charges ever brought against an individual in relation to an ACCC investigation.