Business Law Library & Tracker
Selected Business Law Cases
Short explainers for court decisions that change how Australian businesses handle contracts, staff, customers, IP and company duties.
Sources last reviewed 8 June 2026
Main law guides
297
Acts, regulations and codes worth reading first
Topics
22
Plain-English clusters
Published case explainers
496
Selected cases with a business lesson
Tracked updates
110
New, amended & reviewed
Plain-English explainers, not legal advice. Use the linked official source for section-level detail, and get advice for your situation.
Get legal helpLeigh v National Disability Insurance Agency (Extension of Time and Leave to Appeal)
If your business needs confidentiality in Federal Court proceedings, do not assume sensitivity alone will be enough. Work out early exactly what protection is...
Lindrum v T&P Lindrum Pty Ltd
If your business wants to use a family name, historic venue name or acquired legacy brand, do not assume the issue is solved just because you bought the property or...
Liu v Miller-Kovacs, in the matter of Privato Enterprises Pty Limited
If you are buying or selling a company, do not treat a deposit note, a board minute and a Form 484 as enough. The safer approach is a written share sale agreement...
LK Law Pty Ltd v Karas (No 4)
If someone in your business is a director, partner, trustee, agent or de facto controller of a business stream, they should not privately position that stream for...
Macpherson v Warringah Bowling Club Ltd, in the matter of Warringah Bowling Club Ltd (No 2)
If your company is in voluntary administration and there is a real proposal to pay creditors in full and return the business to solvent trading, do not rely on...
Mansfield (Trustee), in the matter of Frugtniet v Frugtniet (Stay Applications)
Business owners should read this case as a procedural enforcement decision. The applicants were residential tenants, and the Court was not deciding ordinary leasing...
Marasol Pty Ltd v Philips
Read this case as a warning about litigation strategy, not as a final statement on liability. If your dispute is relatively modest in dollar terms, the Federal...
McGinn v Australian Information Commissioner (No 2)
Businesses should read this case as a reminder to separate three issues that often get mixed together in customer disputes: whether an event happened, whether a...
Michael Wilson & Partners Ltd v Cronan
Read this case as a warning about litigation management, not as a ruling that finally resolved the parties’ commercial claims. Goodman J made interlocutory orders...
Miciulis v Cimic Group Limited
Business owners should read this as a class action settlement approval case, not as a new statement of privacy law. The Court did not finally decide whether CIMIC...
Mining and Energy Union v OS MCAP Pty Ltd (No 3)
The practical lesson is to separate operational planning from legal compliance. You can run a business on public holidays and you can roster staff for those days,...
Monks v Pieman Resources Pty Ltd
Business owners should read this case as a procedure-first decision. It does not decide, on the material summarised here, whether the underlying allegations about...
Moroney v TM Insight Operations Pty Ltd
If you want a restraint to be enforceable, start with the commercial interest you are genuinely protecting. That may be customer connection, goodwill, confidential...
Newron Pharmaceuticals S.p.A v Arrotex Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd (Access Regime and Costs)
If your business is thinking about preliminary discovery, treat it as a special and expensive procedural step, not just an early version of ordinary litigation....
Norden Holdings Pty Ltd (Trustee) v Martens Investments Pty Ltd (Trustee), in the matter of Amazonia IP Holdings Pty Ltd (No 6)
Read this case as a warning about court process, not as a general statement that privacy lets businesses withhold records. The court treated the real problem as...
Norden Holdings Pty Ltd (Trustee) v Martens Investments Pty Ltd (Trustee), in the matter of Amazonia IP Holdings Pty Ltd (No 7)
Treat court-ordered document production as a managed compliance task with named responsibility, deadlines and verification. This case was not about a party simply...
Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd v Sun Pharma ANZ Pty Ltd
The practical message is not that formulation patents are worthless. It is that a valid formulation patent and a valid patent term extension are different things....
Oxford Nanopore Technologies Plc v MGI Australia Pty Ltd (No 2)
If your business is considering a patent claim but still needs samples, documents or technical material to decide whether to sue, preliminary discovery can be a...
Palmer v Australian Securities and Investments Commission
If your company, director or officer is under investigation and criminal charges later follow, do not assume a separate civil proceeding is the best place to attack...
Pennytel Australia Pty Limited v Engelke
Business owners should read this case as an evidence and drafting case, not as authority that customer departures alone prove wrongdoing. Pennytel alleged that...
Perry v NetRatings Australia Pty Limited
The practical lesson is to separate suspicion, investigation and disciplinary action. If your business suspects that a staff member has moved sensitive files...
Pigozzo v Mineral Resources Ltd (No 3)
The main lesson is procedural but commercially important. Once information goes into pleadings, affidavits or other court documents, your ability to claw it back...
Preston, in the matter of Grays.Com Pty Ltd (Administrators appointed)
If your company is approaching administration, this case is a reminder that rescue funding needs to be structured for insolvency reality, not just ordinary...
Quach v Registrar of Trade Marks
Read this case as a procedural warning, not a ruling on the strength of the brand. If your business is involved in a trade mark opposition, check early who the...
Reiche v Neometals Ltd (No 3)
If your business is in Federal Court, do not treat filed evidence as automatically private once it is used in open court. This case shows that affidavits and...
Reurich v Savills (SA) Pty Ltd
Business owners should read this case as a process and evidence case. The Court accepted that disability protections were engaged and that assistance-animal...
Roberts-Smith v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd (Admission of Recording)
The practical reading for business owners is narrow but important. This was not a court endorsement of secretly recording or circulating private conversations. Nor...
Rock Solid Industries International (Pty) Ltd v Ozi 4X4 Pty Ltd
If your business sells products that are visually close to a competitor’s registered design, this case is a strong warning to act early and carefully. The Court...
Ron Crouch Transport Pty Ltd, in the matter of Ron Crouch Transport Pty Ltd
If your business enters voluntary administration, leased premises can become one of the most urgent issues almost immediately. Under the usual statutory position,...
Roohizadegan v Technology One Ltd (No 6)
Businesses should read this case as a reminder that courts closely examine the real decision-maker, the timing of the decision, the surrounding communications and...
SCL AUS Limited v Kirkalocka Gold SPV Pty Ltd
Business owners should read this case as a reminder that urgent procedural applications can matter almost as much as the final hearing. If your position depends on...
Scott v SV Partners SA Pty Ltd, in the matter of Scott
If your business is enforcing a debt, this case shows the importance of building the file properly from the start. Keep the signed engagement terms, invoices,...
Shaoxing Newtex Imp & Exp Co Ltd, in the matter of Mosaic Brands Limited (in liq) v Strawbridge
Business owners should read this as an insolvency governance and process case, not as a general contract or unfair contract decision. The main lessons are...
Shearman v Techin MBS Pty Ltd
Business owners should read this case as a contract discipline case first and a marketing case second. If you are selling a premium product, keep records showing...
Shearman v Techin MBS Pty Ltd (No 2)
If your business is dealing with a deposit under a contract, do not assume that leaving the money with a stakeholder solves the commercial problem. This case shows...
Simpson v Taylors Business Pty Ltd (No 2)
Read this case as a warning about both customer property systems and litigation discipline. If your business takes possession of goods under a contract, be precise...