Ipernica directions hearing decision to be decided on 20 Nov

A decision on the Federal Court of Australia's directions hearing into the legal battle between West Perth-based intellectual property company ipernica Ltd and Sweden-based Ericsson Inc will be handed down on November 20, ipernica has announced.

The full text of a company announcement is pasted below

ipernica ltd (ASX:IPR) provides the following update in respect of its case againstEricsson and others in the Federal Court of Australia.

The case concerns a licence agreement executed between ipernica (formerly QPSX) and Ericsson which provides for payment by Ericsson of royalties at a rate of 5% on Ericsson's global use of ATM Products for the first year from 1 July 2003 and 3% for subsequent years. The company is seeking damages for breaches of the licence agreement, as well as for misleading and deceptive conduct in contravention of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth).

Outcome of today's directions hearing

In our previous announcement dated 15 October 2007, ipernica advised that a directions hearing to determine certain issues in the case had been set down for today, 12 November 2007. At today's directions hearing, Justice French considered submissions from the parties in respect of the following key issues:

- proposals for determining specific questions prior to trial, and for splitting the trial into two separate hearings, the first to determine the liability of the parties, and second to determine quantum issues; and
- further discovery of documents by the Ericsson companies.

Justice French will hand down his decision on these issues at 4:30pm AEST on Tuesday 20 November. Justice French indicated that he is likely to set a date for the trial of this case when that decision is handed down.