Information Technology

Our mix of high-level legal, technological and commercial expertise enables us to understand technology and business-related risk issues that organisations are often unaware of. We have the insight to see opportunities and deliver solutions that may not be apparent to other lawyers. Most importantly, we can deliver anywhere in the Asian region.

• Legal update: New .au Domain Name Transfer Policy from 1 June 2008

  In last month’s Legal Update on Upcoming Changes to .au Domain Name Transfer Policy we noted that the Australian domain name administrator (auDA) had approved an implementation plan for a new policy on the transfer on .au domain name licences. auDA has now confirmed that the new policy will take effect on 1 June 2008.

  18 Apr 08 Michael Park

• Legal update: New Guidance Note issued by the Takeovers Panel on equity derivatives

  On 11 April 2008, the Takeovers Panel (Panel) released Guidance Note 20 - Equity Derivatives (Guidance Note) outlining when, and in what circumstances, the use of equity derivatives may constitute unacceptable circumstances and require disclosure to the market.

  17 Apr 08 Robert Sultan, Shane Bilardi , Natalie Trezise

• Legal update: Upcoming changes to .au domain name transfer policy

  The Australian domain name administrator (auDA) recently announced that it has approved an implementation plan for a new policy on the transfer of .au domain names licences. (It is the exclusive licence to use the domain name that is transferred, rather than ownership of the domain name itself.) This announcement follows auDA’s earlier acceptance of the recommendation from the 2007 Names Policy Panel that the current policy be relaxed to allow a registrant to transfer its domain names for any reason.

  27 Mar 08 Michael Park , Ka-Chi Cheung

• Legal update: Market volatility - ASX and ASIC respond

  Sensing a growing controversy, the ASX and ASIC have issued a number of media releases in response to market concerns, reminding market participants of laws designed to protect the integrity of markets. This update discusses the ASX and ASIC statements in light of the current apparent market volatility.

  17 Mar 08 Tim Woodforde

• Legal update: ACCC releases new draft merger guidelines

  The ACCC recently published its 2008 Draft Merger Guidelines for consultation. These guidelines are intended to provide an explanation of the framework the ACCC will apply when considering whether a merger or a proposed merger could substantially lessen competition in a market. Guidelines such as these issued by the ACCC from time to time, provide a useful overview of polices and procedures applied by the ACCC when reviewing proposed mergers.

  4 Mar 08 Jyoti Singh and Chris Mitchell

• Legal update: Recent Tax Developments of interest to Private Equity industry

  The past few months have seen a number of tax developments of interest to the private equity industry. This note provides a brief summary of some of these.

  12 Sep 07 Peter Norman

• Issues for Corporates and Regulators in Second Life and Virtual Worlds

  The Federal Government has recently relaxed regulations governing the more mature media/information distribution platforms, however rapid advances in distribution technologies may require regulation by the Government. This regulation of media distribution may move into areas previously unknown to traditional media law such as taxation, money laundering, and the regulation of crimes such as sexual assault.

  31 Jul 07 Nick Abrahams

• Newsletter: EBIT - May 2007

  Welcome to the May issue of EBIT (Emerging Business, Innovation and Tax). EBIT is an informative newsletter to be shared amongst your clients and colleagues. We provide this information to help you keep abreast of changes to legislation and to stay informed of recent cases and other developments. We hope you enjoyed this issue of EBIT and we look forward to bringing you more issues of EBIT in the future.

  24 May 07 Marcus O'Brien, Michael Tooma, Peter Norman , Angela Zhang, April Thomas

• Legal Update: ATO to tax shareholders on the market value of renounceable rights

  The position adopted by the Australian Taxation Office in a draft class ruling issued to Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) Limited on the income tax treatment of its current renounceable rights issue has significant implications for the ability of listed entities to raise capital.

  8 May 07 David Coombes, Andrew Spalding

• Newsletter: EBIT - March 2007

  Welcome to the March issue of EBIT (Emerging Business, Innovation and Tax). EBIT is an informative newsletter to be shared amongst your clients and colleagues. We provide this information to help you keep abreast of changes to legislation and to stay informed of recent cases and other developments. In this issue we discuss unfair dismissal and permitted termination for a genuine operational reason. We look at copyright protection, and we review the revised exposure draft for the taxation of financial arrangements tax timing rules. We hope you enjoyed this issue of EBIT and we look forward to bringing you more issues of EBIT in the future.

  9 Mar 07 David Coombes, Greg Hipwell, Michael Serong, Gregory Wong , Evan Mentiplay, Annabele Nilsoon