Defamation - King & Wood Mallesons Pulse

Feeling Bluey… Robert Irwin, Pauline Hanson, and Fred again..: an overview of use of likeness

27 February 2025

By Kirsten Bowe, Karen Litherland, Grace Crowley

Last year Pauline Hanson delivered the much anticipated sequel to her satirical cartoon of Australian icons, Bluey and Robert Irwin. Irwin reportedly threatened to sue Hanson for defamation for the first instalment, but regardless of the outcome – it’s a reminder to carefully consider the risks of using a person’s likeness without their consent. This post explores use of likeness (and its relation to publicity rights) and its risks in Australia.

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Are search results defamatory? Google’s not feeling lucky

16 March 2016

By Siao-Sun Hoon

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but search results can hurt you?

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Solicitor’s defamation action dismissed for lacking ‘The Vibe’

18 December 2015

By Will Bartlett

The District Court of Queensland has dismissed a solicitor’s claim for defamation based on an imputation conveyed by the words ‘Dennis Denuto’.

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Can a business stop an ex-employee from listing it as a former employer on LinkedIn?

27 February 2015

By Damien MacRae

And yes, this is a serious question.

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Guidelines released on the “right to be forgotten”

16 December 2014

By Emily Rich

Search engines are no longer in the dark about how to interpret the now infamous “right to be forgotten” ruling of the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”)

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Negotiating the perils and pitfalls of corporate social media: a lesson from Madden v Seafolly

16 September 2014

By Emily Rich

Online social media is now widely acknowledged as the new frontier of corporate communications, but with that comes a range of risks...

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The rise of the citizen journalist and the online blogger

9 May 2014

By Mandy Milner

IP Whiteboard comments on the reaction of the law to the rise of the citizen journalist and online bloggers.

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The ALRC releases Discussion Paper on “Serious Invasions of Privacy in the Digital Era”

2 April 2014

By Charles Davies

As we foreshadowed last month, the Australian Law Reform Commission has recently released Discussion Paper 80, on “Serious Invasions of Privacy in the Digital Era”.

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IP Whiteboard editor published in Internet Law Bulletin: Recent legal developments involving Twitter

17 March 2014

By Samantha McHugh

If you still think that Tweeting is something only birds do, it’s time to fly the coop. Launched in 2006, Twitter is an online social networking site that enables its 645 million registered users worldwide to send and receive 140 character “Tweets”. More than 5700 Tweets are sent ever second and up to 75% of mainstream journalists now find stories through Twitter.

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Think before you speak, think before you tweet –social media and defamation

17 March 2014

By Daniella Phair

While most of us are posting mundane Facebook statuses about what we had for breakfast, or tweeting about our reactions to ‘The Bachelor’ (or is that just me?), Andrew Farley was doing a whole lot more last year, according to a judgment published only recently, but handed down in November 2013 in the District Court of NSW.

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