News and Insights

The rise of hashtag marks brings about the risk of trade mark infringement on social media, even for infrequent hashtag users. But before you start panic-deleting 17 years’ worth of tweets, comments, blogs and late-night musings, read our quick gui

As inflation spikes and cheap money looks like a thing of the past, many are turning their attention to some of the sky-high valuations in the technology sector. Time will tell as to whether those valuations sustain or come crashing back to Earth as

In current COVID-19 news, vaccination status in the workplace is a topic of great debate. As some businesses enforce mandatory vaccination (for more information about this, see our previous alert here), it is important to take a step back and evalua

In a historic announcement on 25 January 2022, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the Minister for Indigenous Australians, the Honourable Ken Wyatt AM MP stated that copyright in the Aboriginal flag now belongs to the Australian Government and is fr

For many businesses, January is a time for reflecting on the past year, and reinvigorating goals for the year ahead. In our experience, the new year presents a unique opportunity to shake things up – and this may involve introducing new products, r

While undertaking their operations, not-for-profit organisations and charities often use or develop intellectual property such as a logo or some other form of trademark. If managed correctly, intellectual property can be used as an asset for the orga

A Bill to help strengthen Australia’s wine export regulatory system and facilitate brand owners to protect their intellectual property is currently before the Senate. At present, the Wine Australia Act 2013 (Cth) (Act) is the legislative Act used t

Two months have gone by since the prohibition on restrictive trade practices under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (CCA) began applying to the licensing and assignment of intellectual property rights, following the repeal of section 51(3)

A large amount of the average company’s capital value subsists in its intellectual property (IP). However, this value is very volatile, and if not developed and adequately protected a company’s IP may not be commercialised to its fullest potentia

Key issues: Trident Seafoods attempted to have Trident Foods’ trade mark removed for non-use in order to register their own logo under the same class. The basis for this claim relied upon the fact that Trident Foods had been exclusively using th

Key issues: An Australian employer was recently ordered, along with other remedial measures, to pay $60,000 compensation (including for ‘aggravated damages’) to 14 employees and former employees for breaching their privacy. The decision of the

As of 9 June 2019, warranties against defects given to consumers by businesses when supplying services alone, or when supplying goods and services together, must have certain mandatory wording. This is a new requirement.  Currently, the mandatory wo