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Restraining Employees: How enforceable are cascading restraints under Australian law?
When a company parts ways with their employees, it is typical for the employment contract to contain clauses which restrain the employee from...
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The New AI Act: Banning ‘Bad Influence’ Toys + Other World Firsts
In response to the rising influence and power of artificial intellgence to disrupt lives and industries, in December 2023, the EU Parliament and...
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Watch your Standards! $50 million Penalties for Unfair Small Business Contracts
A year ago, the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) was amended to introduce eye-watering financial penalties for standard form contracts that are...
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Adidas’ 70 year Quest to own Stripes + the Importance of Trade Mark Protection
In January this year, trade mark lawyers representing American fashion brand Thom Browne told the Manhattan Southern District Court that Adidas...
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The PwC Cautionary Tale – Reminders for Handling Sensitive Commercial Information
The recent unauthorised disclosure of inside government information by PwC partners shocked and infuriated the federal Government, and has been...
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Privacy Around the World – 2023 Pulse Check
Individual privacy is valued as a right in many countries around the world, and protection of privacy has become a vital concern for regulators. Yet...
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The Rise of the AI Deities: As Thorny Issues Cluster – Part 2
Led by OpenAI poster child, ChatGPT, in a matter of months, hundreds of millions of individuals across the globe have been activated to the...
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SAFE Notes: Are these Once Strange Things Suitable For Your Next Investment?
Once regarded as one of the investment community’s ‘stranger things’, SAFE Notes occupy the twilight zone between the usual binary alternatives...
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ChatGPT – Challenges to Ownership and Protection of IP in the Era of the AI Deities
As 2022 drew to a close, OpenAI released a public iteration of its web-based, machine-learning chatbot program, ChatGPT, and quickly garnered 100...
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AI Art Selfies: Some IP and Privacy concerns with the latest social trend
A recent ripple spreading rapidly through social media is an AI art app that creates stylised avatars based on selfies. The Lensa AI app was...
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Directors IDs: Just how personal is this 15-digit identifier?
Nearly 2.7 million Australian Directors have submitted their personal information to the Australian Business Registry Service to apply for a Director...
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Is SaaS / cloud-based software subject to export compliance rules in Australia?
Software as a Service (SaaS) technologies have disrupted and transformed the way many businesses deliver software enabled products and services to...
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Huge Fines for Businesses with Unfair Terms
With effect from 9 November 2022, new laws came into effect which amended the Australian Consumer Law to introduce very serious penalties for...
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Time to break out your Data Breach Response Plan: After more large-scale breaches, major changes are destined for Australian law
The September 2022 Optus data breach served as a wake-up call for the Australian government and businesses alike, driving rapid reforms to the...
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Post Optus Data Breach | Is Your Company’s Data Secure? How to Avoid Serious Harm to Your Business
In September 2022, millions of Australian Optus customers had their data hacked, causing widespread concerns of identity fraud. Optus,...
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Corporate Law+ | Sign of the Times – E-Signing is Here to Stay
As the growth of the Metaverse and Web 3.0 continues to influence how we live and work today, and our expectations for tomorrow, the impact of...
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METAVERSE+ | DALL-E 2: Who owns AI Art Under Australian Law?
Launched in July 2022 by US artificial intelligence research lab OpenAI, DALL-E 2 is a revolutionary text-to-image art generator which harnesses the...
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Corporate Law+ | Attention All Company Directors – Get Your Mandatory Director ID Number in 5 minutes
All directors of Australian companies must hold a Director Identification Number (DIN) or risk prosecution by ASIC. Below we simplify the process for...
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Can an A.I. Machine be an Inventor for Patent Registration?
Whether an AI machine can be recognised as an inventor for patent registration purposes raises fascinating legal and social anthropological...
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Corporate Law+ | Electronic Signing – How to Validly Use Cloud Based Platforms
While data and privacy concerns slowed the initial widespread adoption of e-signatures, attitudes have drastically changed towards e-signing and...
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Corporate Law+ | New Directors Must Now Get a Director ID Before Appointment
Prospective company directors are now legally required to apply for a Director Identification Number before they are appointed. The consequences of...
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Protecting Your Secret Sauce | How to Ensure You Actually Own that Valuable Business IP
...
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METAVERSE+ | Web 3.0 – Legal Considerations in the Spatial Era
Rapidly evolving technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence are heralding ‘Web 3.0’, a.k.a. ‘the next phase of the...
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METAVERSE+ | Why Facebook is Really Changing its Name to Meta
The tech giant formerly known has Facebook has recently announced that it will change its name to Meta and sharpen its focus on the development of...
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Corporate Law+ | Company Directors set to get IDs from New Government Watchdog
Australian Company directors will soon be required to verify their identity with a recently formed Government Registrar by applying for a...
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Corporate Law+ | More Evidence of the End For Wet Ink? Victoria Becomes First State to Make Pandemic Reforms Permanent
Victoria has solidified its contemporary stance on electronic signatures and made its pandemic reforms permanent. In this article, we provide an...
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METAVERSE+ | Gold-backed gorillas and tall giraffes – the trend towards collectible NFT communities
As the global market for NFTs continues to gain momentum, new crypto-collectible communities have entered the scene. In this article we discuss the...
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Corporate Law+ | The Return of E-Signatures: Updates to the Corporations Act under the 2021 COVID-19 lockdowns
Highly anticipated corporate law reforms have finally been implemented. In this article, we provide an insight into what the changes are, how they...
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METAVERSE+ | The Spiky Rise of NFTs: Some Intriguing Legal Issues and Challenges
The recent spike in the popularity of NFTs has been tagged by some as the future of the digital art market, and has the markings of the next big...
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COVID-19+ | Temporary Pandemic Relief Gives Way To Australia’s Most Significant Insolvency Reforms in 30 Years
Despite the expiry of the COVID-19 relief measures, small businesses continue to struggle with the economic challenges created by the pandemic....
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COVID-19+ | Corporate Reform in the Age of COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread disruption in social and business life on a worldwide basis. Amongst what many regard as positive...
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Should TikTok be Banned in Australia? Federal Parliamentary Inquiry launches over Chinese Data Security Fears
At the same time as the popularity of mobile app TikTok rises exponentially, countries around the world have raised data and security concerns....
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COVID-19+ | Protecting your Business from Cyber Attacks in a COVID-19 World
On 19 June 2020, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that all levels of Australian government were targeted by ‘sophisticated state-based...
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COVID-19+ | Regulating the Modernisation of Corporate Governance in a Socially Distant World
The social distancing measures introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have disrupted much of our way of life in the last few months. In the...
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Watch your wall: Businesses liable for defamatory Facebook comments – NSW Court of Appeal confirms
On 1 June 2020, the NSW Court of Appeal controversially upheld the Supreme Court’s decision that media companies with Facebook pages could be...
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The Rise and Rise of IP – How to Protect and Leverage Intangible Assets
Intellectual Property (‘IP’) is the most important asset class for modern businesses today, accounting for almost 90% of a...
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COVID-19+ The COVIDSafe App & your Privacy: Is it safe to download?
As that famous virus continues to dominate world affairs, governments and tech companies worldwide are turning to mobile technology to help track...
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COVID-19+ Emergency Guide for Australian Businesses (15 May 2020 Update)
As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic causes health and social impacts on a previously almost unfathomable scale, for businesses too it is a...
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COVID-19+ Update on National Cabinet’s Landscape-Shifting Commercial Leasing Code
On 7 April 2020 National Cabinet announced a mandatory code (‘Code’) for commercial leases of small and medium sized Australian business...
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COVID-19+ What Government Grants can SMEs piggy-bank?
In the last few months, COVID-19 has disrupted tens of thousands of businesses across the country, from large listed conglomerates to sole traders...
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COVID-19+ Emergency Guide for Australian Businesses (17 April 2020 Update)
As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic causes health and social impacts on a previously almost unfathomable scale, for businesses too it is a...
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COVID-19+ Newsflash! – National Cabinet unveils ground-breaking Commercial Leasing Code for SMEs
Under growing pressure to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, on 7 April 2020 National Cabinet announced a mandatory code for commercial lease tenancies...
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COVID-19+ Fed Govt’s $130B ‘JobKeeper’ Program
On 30 March 2020, the Government announced $130 Billion in the budget with the goal of keeping workers in jobs over the next six months. This article...
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COVID-19+ ‘Stay at Home’ laws set to profoundly impact commercial offices
New laws mean that people in New South Wales must not leave their homes without ‘reasonable excuse’. A reasonable excuse is not...
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COVID-19+ Emergency Guide for Australian Businesses
As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic causes health and social impacts on a previously almost unfathomable scale, for businesses too it is a...
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New Laws make Directors Personally Liable for GST Debts
The Senate has recently passed an act which confers personal liability on directors for their company’s unpaid GST...
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Neobanks: Can They Challenge the Big 4?
‘Neobanks’, also known as ‘digital banks’ and ‘challenger banks’, are terms which synonymously refer to the next...
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New Whistleblower Policy: 10 Key Points To Note!
All public companies have until 1 January 2020 to comply with the new whistleblower policy requirements. This requirement carries a $126,000 (body...
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Disruptive Skies: 10 Things You Need to Know about Australian Drone Law
With drones’ increasing popularity, concerns have been raised regarding their potential to invade privacy and cause safety risks. Whilst...
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Corporate Law Update: High Court Sounds a Warning to Directors Providing Financial Assistance to Shareholders
Following a recent High Court case, companies should be aware of adopting too narrow an interpretation of the “financial assistance” provisions...
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Handle with care: owner drivers get new protections
Amendments to the Owner Drivers and Forestry Contractors Act create new protections for gig economy workers transporting...
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The Power of the Platform: ACCC Takes Aim at Facebook & Google
In June 2019, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (‘ACCC’) released its’ final report from the Digital Platforms Inquiry...
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IP Rights Holders beware! Changes to Competition Laws
The repeal of the so-called “IP exemption” from the Competition and Consumer Act could significantly impact commercial dealings in IP rights....
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Blocking the exits: Directors’ rights to decline share transfers
Under Australian law, directors of companies typically have unilateral powers to reject transfers of shares by shareholders. However, below we...
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Get your records straight! ASIC record-keeping obligations and penalties
Officers have legal obligations under Australian law to keep information on ASIC registers up to...
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Your freelancer has arrived: Australian Uber drivers held not employees
In much-publicised proceedings, the Fair Work Ombudsman has found that Uber drivers are independent...
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Watch your wall: Businesses liable for defamatory Facebook comments
A decision in the Supreme Court of New South Wales has paved the way for businesses to be held responsible for publishing defamatory comments by...
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Contractual lock-in? Terminating contracts without a clause
Contracts form the backbone of almost all commercial arrangements, binding parties to perform their specified duties. But when does a breach or...
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Insolvent trading and the position of Australian directors
Under Australian law, board directors have a duty to prevent insolvent trading by corporations. Though certain exceptions may apply, failure to do so...
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Illegal phoenix activity targeted by new corporate law reforms
New reforms currently before Parliament seeks to give the Phoenix Taskforce more power to prevent illegal...
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Privacy Act to be seriously strengthened by proposed amendments
The Attorney-General, Christian Porter, has announced a proposal for making the Privacy Act 1988...
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Does wi-fi sniffing breach Australian privacy law?
‘Wi-fi sniffing’ can be used to generate useful insights for businesses without breaching data protection laws. However organisations...
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Creating a modern commercial law firm and a healthy workplace
In this podcast, James is interviewed by Beyond Billables about the ideas behind Edwards + Co...
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The EU Copyright Directive: Meme killers, link taxes and other controversies
On 14 September 2018, the European Parliament voted to pass the controversial European Union Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market...
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The rise of the gig economy and DDIs: a tough gig for lawmakers globally
With the gig economy and DDIs here to stay, legal systems scramble to address these new...
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Regulating the gig economy and DDIs: snapshot studies of Uber and Airbnb
We take a look at the how lawmakers in Sydney and New York are regulating DDIs like Uber and...
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LAWFIT Guides: Is this too personal?
We examine the central definition of ‘Personal Information’ under Australian privacy...
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LAWFIT Guides: Employee records under Australian privacy law
We look at the treatment of employee data under Australian privacy...
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AR and the trailing footsteps of Australian privacy law
We look at how regulators might try and keep up with developments in...
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An update on open banking in Australia
Proposed changes to the Consumer Data Rights (‘CDRs’) to facilitate open banking are another example of the consumer protectionist...
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Cambridge Analytica & Facebook data harvesting controversy
Following a report that data from up to 60m Facebook accounts had been unlawfully used by its’ data partner, Cambridge Analytica, between 17...
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Are e-signatures valid under Australian Law?
A great strength for modern businesses is being able to negotiate and strike deals quickly and efficiently over the internet. Once they’re...
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Overview of the New Australian Privacy Principles
From 12 March 2014, the new Australian Privacy Principles (‘APPs’) impose a positive obligation on organisations to implement practices,...
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Half a million Facebook users reject new data use policy (but not enough)
Was this all a storm in a virtual teacup or was the 30% voter threshold always an impossible...
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