Search

Twig­gy off the hook — For­rest v Aus­tralian Secu­ri­ties and Invest­ments Com­mis­sion [2012] HCA 39

IN brief The High Court appeal against the Full Fed­er­al Court deci­sion (hand­ed down in Feb­ru­ary last year) relat­ed to con­duct by both Fortes­cue Met­als Group Ltd (FMG) and Mr Andrew For­rest in rela­tion to a breach of con­tin­u­ous dis­clo­sure oblig­a­tions under the Cor­po­ra­tions Act 2001 (Act) and of Mr For­rest’s duties…

Pay­ment for Stand­ing By 

In Brief Many indus­tri­al awards pro­vide that employ­ees are enti­tled to pay­ment for ​“stand­ing by” – ie peri­ods of time where they are not at work but must be ready to be called in to work. A recent Fed­er­al Court of Aus­tralia deci­sion held that an employ­er owed four elec­tri­cians for time ​“stand­ing…

New Zealand signs up to inter­na­tion­al treaty mak­ing trade mark pro­tec­tion easier

In Brief An impor­tant new devel­op­ment for trade mark pro­tec­tion in New Zealand comes into effect on 1 Decem­ber 2012. We look at what this means for busi­ness­es seek­ing brand pro­tec­tion in New Zealand. In an impor­tant new devel­op­ment for Aus­tralian busi­ness­es seek­ing reg­is­tered trade mark pro­tec­tion for their brands in New…

Watch­ing the footy from the cloud

Optus TV Now – Fed­er­al Court Copy­right Judg­ment Stands In brief Optus’ footy wars over its ​‘TV Now’ ser­vice have been brought to an end with the refusal of its appli­ca­tion seek­ing leave to appeal to the High Court. Our Com­mer­cial and IP & Tech­nol­o­gy Team looks at what this means for providers…

New Work­place Laws — Fair Work Amend­ment Bill 2012 

In Brief After being recent­ly passed by the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, the Fair Work Amend­ment Bill 2012 is cur­rent­ly being con­sid­ered by the Sen­ate’s Edu­ca­tion, Employ­ment and Work­places Rela­tions Leg­isla­tive Com­mit­tee, with a report­ing date of 26 Novem­ber 2012. The Bill was draft­ed in response to the Fair Work Act Review com­plet­ed…

Can I dis­in­her­it my way­ward child from my will?… You may be surprised!

In Brief Who can make a claim against your estate? What needs to be estab­lished by the appli­cant? What will the court con­sid­er? Read on as we answer these impor­tant ques­tions along with proac­tive strate­gies to help pro­tect your estate. Who can make a claim? Chap­ter 3 of the Suc­ces­sion Act 2006 (Act) empow­ers cer­tain…

Sur­veil­lance in the Workplace

In Brief New South Wales is one of the few Aus­tralian states which has ded­i­cat­ed leg­is­la­tion address­ing sur­veil­lance in the work­place. The Work­place Sur­veil­lance Act 2005 (NSW) (the Act) deals with cam­era, com­put­er and track­ing sur­veil­lance. The Act pro­vides that in some cir­cum­stances employ­ers can sur­veil employ­ees with their knowl­edge (overt…

Ad reg­u­la­tor deter­mines that social media cam­paigns must com­ply with ad requirements

In brief The Adver­tis­ing Stan­dards Bureau, the adver­tis­ing reg­u­la­tor, has found that the VB Face­book pages are adver­tise­ments and sub­ject to the AANA Code of Ethics. Our Com­mer­cial and IP & Tech­nol­o­gy Team looks at the recent deci­sions of the ABS and how this affects busi­ness­es with any social media pres­ence…

Com­mon­wealth Penal­ty Units to Rise by end 2012

The mon­e­tary amount of penal­ties for offences under Com­mon­wealth leg­is­la­tion are set to increase sig­nif­i­cant­ly by the end of 2012 under leg­is­la­tion recent­ly passed by Parliament. The leg­is­la­tion imple­ment­ing the increase is con­tained in the Crimes Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment (Seri­ous Drugs, Iden­ti­ty Crime and Oth­er Mea­sures) Bill 2012, which was assent­ed to…

Cheap­er online option for patent applications

IP Aus­trali­a’s Patent Office has intro­duced an online facil­i­ty that now gives patent appli­cants and own­ers an easy and secure sys­tem for the elec­tron­ic fil­ing of patent appli­ca­tions and the ongo­ing man­age­ment of those appli­ca­tions and any grant­ed patents. Appli­cants (or their patent attor­neys) can now apply online for: a pro­vi­sion­al appli­ca­tion…

Cor­po­rate update

In Brief The cor­po­rate team dis­cuss recent devel­op­ments con­cern­ing side deals and indem­ni­ties in com­mer­cial con­tracts as well as direc­tors’ lia­bil­i­ty changes in NSW, changes in Work Health and Safe­ty Laws and changes to cor­po­rate penalties. Side Deals Adi­cho v Dankei­th Homes Pty Ltd [2012] NSW­CA 316 Any side deals and col­lat­er­al con­tracts should be…

Can an employ­er ban tat­toos in the workplace?

In Brief The vis­i­ble tat­toos that indi­vid­u­als adorn their bod­ies with can become the sub­ject of dis­cus­sion in the work­place. There is a diver­si­ty of opin­ion as to whether tat­toos are a pos­i­tive, neg­a­tive or neu­tral pres­ence in the work­place. This arti­cle dis­cuss­es whether an employ­er can pre­vent tat­toos in the workplace. Tat­too­ing…

Employ­ee rights when your employ­er becomes insolvent

In Brief In Octo­ber 2012 the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment intro­duced the Fair Enti­tle­ments Guar­an­tee Bill 2012 to for­malise by leg­is­la­tion, what has to date oper­at­ed as the Gen­er­al Employ­ee Enti­tle­ments and Redun­dan­cy Scheme (GEERS). The Bill is like­ly to become law in ear­ly 2013. This arti­cle dis­cuss­es who is eli­gi­ble for finan­cial…

My part­ner has passed away with­out leav­ing a Will what should I do?

In Brief Where a per­son dies with­out a valid Will they are said to have died ​‘intes­tate’. In these cir­cum­stances the Supreme Court will grant Let­ters of Admin­is­tra­tion instead of the Grant of Pro­bate. This arti­cle dis­cuss­es who may apply for Let­ters of Admin­is­tra­tion and the pro­ce­dure involved. Let­ters of Administration Where a per­son dies…

Recog­ni­tion of cross-bor­der insol­ven­cies in Australia 

In brief Swaab lawyers Georgina King and Michelle Harpur dis­cuss appli­ca­tions for recog­ni­tion of for­eign insol­ven­cy pro­ceed­ings in Aus­tralia under the UNCI­TRAL Mod­el Law on Cross-Bor­der Insolvency.  Since 2008, the Unit­ed Nations Com­mis­sion on Inter­na­tion­al Trade Law Mod­el Law on Cross-Bor­der Insol­ven­cy (Mod­el Law) has been in force in Aus­tralia pur­suant to…