Case Updates

Case Update – AstraZeneca AB v Apotex Pty Ltd & Others [2015] HCA 30

AstraZeneca’s defence of their high cholesterol medication Crestor ended in defeat late last year. In 2011 their patent on Crestor’s active drug Rosuvastatin was successfully challenged in the Federal Court for want of an inventive step by a group of generic manufacturers. Astrazeneca challenged that finding to the Full Federal Court and eventually, to the High Court.

Case Update – Uber, what’s next for ridesharing?

In December 2015, Uber driver Nathan Brenner was fined $900 for driving a hire car without a commercial license or registration. Uber does not require the drivers of its UberX service to hold a commercial driving license, nor are the vehicles commercially registered. Mr Brenner was charged after driving two undercover taxi commission investigators on a short journey on 21 August 2014.

Fuller-Lyons v New South Wales [2015] HCA 31

On 29 January 2001, 8 year old Corey Fuller-Lyons fell from a train travelling at 100kmh. He sustained significant injuries. He sued the State of New South Wales and was successful in the Supreme Court being awarded over $1.5 million in damages. There was no direct evidence as to the circumstances surrounding Corey’s fall, so the Trial Judge’s conclusions of negligence rested upon inferential fact finding. The State appealed to the Court of Appeal and was successful in overturning the Trial Judge’s decision. The Court of Appeal proffered three “alternative” hypotheses as to Corey’s fall that did not involve negligence on the part of the State. Corey appealed to the High Court.

Victorian WorkCover Authority v Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health [2015] VCC 1154

How does the law reconcile the protection or workers from injury with the rights of patients who might have a propensity to injure them?  This fine line is being treaded in the health care sector every day.