Intellectual Property

The proprietors of a family-owned Adelaide deli selling imported food for the past 50 years have lost a trade mark lawsuit targeting Eddie Muto’s Il Mercato Centrale — the sprawling Italian market expected to open its first Australian location in Collins St, Melbourne this year.

Appealing her loss in a trade mark stoush with an Australian fashion designer, pop star Katy Perry has argued the woman “should have changed direction” with her ‘Katie Perry’ brand once the singer’s star began to rise. 

A judge has extended an injunction against a NSW man who published material on social media allegedly leaked by a former Tesla employee about its self-driving software, saying the electric vehicle giant had a case on its face against him.

The maker of Finish dishwashing products, RB Hygiene, has won a partial appeal in a trade mark stoush with rival Henkel, with the Full Court reviving two of its trade marks but rejecting its challenge to a logo for competing Somat-branded products.

Maddocks has recruited a special counsel from Ashurst to head up its trade marks and brand protection practice. 

Technology company SARB has partially succeeded in a challenge to a ruling that it infringed a rival’s intellectual property in its development of a parking system used by the City of Melbourne, with an appeals court finding a judge made an error in his reading of the claims of one patent at issue.

South Korean biosimilars company Samsung Bioepis has sued Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Biotech to invalidate two patents for Crohn’s disease drug Stelara, after reaching a licencing agreement over the medicine in the US.

A Melbourne orthopaedic clinic has lost its bid to register the name ‘Melbourne Bone and Joint Clinic’ as a trade mark, with a judge finding the phrase was just an ordinary combination of words. 

Thomson Geer has recruited new partners from Gadens and Holding Redlich to strengthen the law firm’s IP and corporate benches.

Australian IP lawyers are closely watching The New York Times’ copyright lawsuit seeking billions in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, but it remains to be seen whether Australia will become a favoured jurisdiction for similar suits or be left playing catch up, experts say.