Knowledge

In 2018 Canberra was Australia’s second-fastest growing city, pipped by Melbourne by 0.3%, with Brisbane in third. That trend continues. Shouldn’t be a problem to keep on expanding, the Australian Capital Territory is pretty big? Actually, it is a problem. The territory is mostly too rugged for development, and 60% of the land is already locked away in national parks and reserves. Take a look at the city map and the growing pains are clearly seen, with suburbs hemmed in by the Territory’s borders on all sides except to the south west. Infill development is one way the government has gone about accommodating the influx of people, with residential towers rapidly popping up in the city and town centres. But the government has pushed ahead with large-scale “greenfield” development as well, despite the cost.

Kim Kardashian is again brewing up a social media storm – this time over her application to trade mark the word “Kimono” for her new range of shapewear.

3D printers, memory devices – you would be excused for thinking that these were pretty standard products these days. But this is not necessarily the case, as the continuing debate about the dividing line between “benign” and “malign” goods, and the people who trade in them, tell us.  The concern of governments around the world extends further, to any new technology that is “uncontrolled” in cross-border trade.

The Australian start-up Rokt Pte Ltd (Rokt), now a global marketing technology force, has succeeded in its Federal Court appeal against IP Australia. The triumph offers much-needed clarity around the patentability of computer-implemented inventions, and is a promising result for innovators in the software space.

Reports last week about the hacking of the political think-tank Lowy Institute and of the question-and-answer website Quora were met with different responses by the affected parties. Reportedly, the Lowy Institute declined to comment, citing a policy of not doing so on security matters. For its part, Quora began emailing affected users the next working day after discovering the hack.

The ACCC’s spotlight on businesses who make false or misleading representations to consumers about their rights under the Australian Consumer Law (“ACL”) continues with two more recent wins before the Courts. In separate cases against Apple and LG, the ACCC has confirmed its strong stance and willingness to prosecute businesses who fail to comply with the ACL.

Following the implementation of the Safe Harbour protections introduced last September, new changes to the Corporations Act 2001 come into force on 1 July 2018, significantly limiting the ability of parties to rely on insolvency as a means to terminate a contract.  These changes intend to help facilitate the restructure and turnaround of struggling companies and are being hailed by insolvency practitioners as a long overdue softening of existing insolvency laws. However, businesses should be aware of the implications of these changes and take steps, where possible, to mitigate their risk.

The phrase “without prejudice” regularly appears in communications between parties in a dispute as it is often seen as a blanket protection against all things said, or admitted, to the other side. However, this phrase is easy to use incorrectly, leaving parties with the mistaken belief that their statements are protected by privilege. Some would argue that this is a widely overused yet misunderstood phrase in legal practice.

Cybersecurity, like money, is one of those things that become screamingly important when there is a lack of it. Compliance is widely recognised to be a critical component of cybersecurity. This article considers how an in-house counsel and other legal practitioners can support a corporate client in pursuit of better compliance in cybersecurity.

Legal costs are a legitimate business concern for any organisation particularly those involved in litigation. One only needs to recall the C7 litigation a decade ago to realise the enormity of legal costs incurred by mostly unwilling participants.¹ The C7 case involved litigation between the Seven Network and virtually every major media organisation in Australia. It involved allegations of anti-competitive conduct by Seven in the granting of television rights to Seven’s rivals. In that piece of ill-fated litigation Justice Sackville of the Federal Court estimated legal costs incurred by the parties to be in the region of $200 million.