Fieldturf Inc v Balsam Pacific Pty Ltd [2003] FCA 809

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Fieldturf Inc v Balsam Pacific Pty Ltd [2003] FCA 809

PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – pleadings – patent infringement action – "do not admit" plea – respondents required to state what aspects of the applicant's claim are admitted

Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (UK) r 16.5 Federal Court Rules O 10 r 1A, O 12 r 5(1)(b) Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 1937 (US) r 16

Bain v Whitehaven & Furness Railway Co (1850) 10 ER 1 cited Western Australian Capital Investment Co v Federal Commissioner of Taxation (1988) 89 ATC 4001 discussed

Australian Law Reform Commission, Review of the Adversarial System of Litigation, Issues Paper 20, 1997, para 7.9 "Developments in the Law – Discovery" (1961) 74 Harvard LR 940 F G Brennan QC, "Written Pleadings" (1975) 12 UWAL Rev 33 Odgers on Civil Court Actions, 24th ed, 1996, 146 Stephen on Pleadings, 6th ed, 1860, 23-26 FIELDTURF INC v BALSAM PACIFIC PTY LTD and DARREN JAMES GIRARD V 905 of 2002 FINKELSTEIN J 1 AUGUST 2003 MELBOURNE

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

VICTORIA DISTRICT REGISTRY V 905 of 2002

BETWEEN: FIELDTURF INC

Applicant

AND: BALSAM PACIFIC PTY LIMITED and

DARREN JAMES GIRARD

Respondents

JUDGE: FINKELSTEIN J

DATE OF ORDER: 23 JULY 2003

WHERE MADE: MELBOURNE

THE COURT ORDERS THAT: 1. The respondents identify precisely which of the integers of claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 15 and 18 of the applicant's patent 730904 (which integers are identified in the applicant's letter to the respondents' solicitors dated 12 June 2003) the respondents allege are not present in the synthetic grass surface that they admit offering to sell and supply and selling and supplying at paragraph 2 of their defence dated 8 April 2003. Note: Settlement and entry of orders is dealt with in Order 36 of the Federal Court Rules.