Facing cross claims by Pitcher Partners in two shareholder class actions alleging the accounting firm wrongly signed off on Slater & Gordon’s financial reports ahead of a share price nosedive, the law firm and its ex-directors say they relied on the auditor to ensure the veracity of the statements.
Global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has successfully defended the patent for its sedative drug Precedex against a validity challenge, a big win for the drug maker after a US court found last year that its patents for a ready-to-use version of the drug were invalid for obviousness.
The potential source of alleged “industrial espionage” in Motorola’s case against Hytera over the intellectual property for its digital radio mobile devices has been revealed as a mystery woman with two laptops that contained a “very large number of Motorola documents”, a court has heard.
The Copyright Tribunal erred by including rights in a reissued Foxtel licence agreement that fell outside the authority of the licence grant holder, the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia, the Full Federal Court has found.
In its opening submissions in a trade mark case brought by Botox maker Allergan, Australian cosmetics brand Self Care compared its used of the word Botox to describe its alternative cosmetic products to the iPhone secondary accessories market, saying its use did not imply an affiliation with the injectable wrinkle treatment’s maker.
Motorola has slammed Hytera for engaging in “industrial espionage on a grand scale”, after more than a thousand Motorola-branded documents were found in the possession of the Chinese radio maker.
A judge has granted discovery of up to 32,000 documents just months out from the Forge investor class action trial, as she blasted the insurance company respondents for wasting resources after they failed to comply with the court’s previous orders.
Australian law firm Mills Oakley has established an IP practice in its Melbourne office, snatching a senior lawyer from rival K&L Gates, which is now set to lose five IP specialists in the space of almost two months.
Crown Resorts has appealed a ruling in a shareholder class action against it allowing 18 former employees, who were jailed as part of the Chinese government’s crackdown on gambling, to answer questions about its business in China.
Accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers is resisting a notice to produce audit files in a consolidated shareholder class action over the collapse of education and training company Vocation, arguing its partners face a real risk of criminal and civil penalty proceedings and are entited to claim privilege against self-incrimination.