When an agent is entering into a contract on behalf of a company, all parties to the contract should take particular care to ensure that the contract is executed properly, making it legally binding and enforceable.  Particular attention should also be given to the agent themselves, as it is importan...

All business owners and agents must be careful when providing prospective purchasers with sales figures and other information, particularly where reliance will be placed on that information, without separate verification by the prospective purchaser. This issue arose in a December 2019 decision by t...

What is the best option when leasing commercial properties?

It is now standard practice when acting for landlords in commercial leasing, to request some kind of security from the tenant, typically a bank guarantee or security deposit in the form of a cash bond, and where applicable personal guarant...

• Do you have employees in your business?
• Are they expected to work outside of their set hours?
• Do you know what the law says in relation to this kind of overtime?

The Fair Work Commission has ordered an employer to pay eight weeks’ wages to an apprentice who was found to have been unfairly dis...

In a judgment handed down by the Federal Court in January 2020, Trivago, popular hotel comparison website, has been found guilty of misleading and deceiving the public as to the operation of its website. The misrepresentations have led consumers to believe they were obtaining discounts when, in real...

If you are planning on selling your business, and are being assisted by a solicitor, you will inevitably be asked for business documentation and history.

We regularly meet our clients once they have already accepted an offer on the business and are needing their contract prepared. More often than n...

As an employer, it is important that when you hire new employees, and as their employment changes, you set out clearly – and in writing – your expectations of them, and their responsibilities. Not only will this assist in managing expectations, but it may be important to clarify each party’s obligat...

In order to make a claim for unfair dismissal, one of the pre-conditions to be satisfied is that the employee must have served the statutory minimum employment period – for those engaged by a “small business employer”, the minimum period is 12 months.  For others, it is 6 months.

A small business e...

A Heads of Agreement (also known as a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) or Letter of Intent (LOI)) is a document outlining the proposed agreement between the parties to it. There are a number of commercial situations where a Heads of Agreement will be commonly prepared between the parties – for exam...

As of June 2019 the Australian Consumer Law (‘ACL’) has additional requirements for those businesses who provide a Warranty Against Defects for services (‘WAD’) in the provision of either:

• Services; or
• Goods with services.

What is a WAD?

This is a representation to consumers that if the good...

Can a bikini-style name infringe a trademark? This is an issue which the Federal Court of Australia addressed in a 2019 decision involving Pinnacle Runway.

The parties

• Pinnacle Runway Pty Ltd (“Pinnacle”) designs, manufactures, supplies and sells women’s clothing in Australia and overseas under
...

The Supreme Court has struck out a claim made by Ms Annika Karlsson in which she alleged that Griffith University had breached her trademark registration of the slogan “Know more. Do more.” The Court’s decision can be read here.

Registering the trademark – by both businesses

Griffith University fi...