Intellectual Property

Microsoft has won a pittance for copyright infringement but copped a “substantial costs order” in its six-year-old intellectual property suit against a Melbourne computer retailer over its Windows 7 software, which previously netted the Silicon Valley giant a $2.8 million payout from Judge Sandy Street that was slammed as a “regrettable” judicial failure.

An Adelaide digital printing firm has brought a case against two healthcare companies in the United States, challenging a patent for producing 3D printed, artificial cadavers used in medical training and research. 

Sportsbet has won an injunction preventing the owner of the sportsbet.com domain from prosecuting an action in the US, which a judge said sought to interfere with an Australian domain name battle “in the most stark fashion.”

American fast food chain In-N-Out Burgers has won an injunction against a Queensland ‘ghost kitchen’ that operates solely through meal delivery apps, after it failed to comply with court-ordered undertakings.

Intellectual property firm Spruson & Ferguson has launched court action to obtain documents showing alleged solicitation of clients by a handful of senior staff who jumped ship last year to form their own firm.

A unit of beverage giant Bickford’s has taken Spanish-Australian chef Miguel Maestre to court for allegedly infringing its trade mark by selling beer under the ‘El Toro Loco’ brand.

A judge has found Shenzhen-based based radio manufacturer Hytera engaged in “substantial industrial theft” by appropriating Motorola’s source code for its digital mobile radios and should be on the hook for additional damages for “flagrantly” infringing Motorola’s copyright.

A judge has granted the Pokemon Company’s request for a temporary injunction restraining an Australian business from developing an augmented reality game featuring its popular Pokemon characters and selling related NFTs. 

The Pokemon Company has taken an Australian business to court for allegedly threatening to release Pokemon non-fungible tokens for use in an augmented reality game without the copyright owner’s permission.

Gaming company Konami will cough up $35.9 million dollars to rival company Aristocrat Technologies next year, eight years after a judge found that it had violated Aristocrat’s patent for a slot machine with an improved jackpot feature.