Posted by Elizabeth Gore-Jones
on 22 August 2019
Today's post might be better titled "You don't know what you don't know".
The story goes something like this:
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you enter into a contract
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the contract includes a provision where the goodwill or intellectual property of a third party is protected
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the third party is not a party to the contract
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you breach the goodwill or intellectual property provision
The third party can't pursue you because it isn't a party to the contract, right? wrong.
Section 55 of the Property Law Act in Queensland allows the third party to enforce its rights against you and to protect its goodwill provided all of the criteria in the section are met.
Obviously if you are the third party then you would be more than happy to find out that you may have rights to protect your interests in this scenario.
So why is this sneaky? Well it may apply to all contracts in Queensland not just contracts relating to property. So if you didn't know about it you may either be taken by surprise or may miss out on protecting your rights (depending upon who you are in the scenario).
As always you should seek legal advice for your own circumstances.
Author:Elizabeth Gore-JonesAbout: Elizabeth specialises in franchising law. She lectures at Bond University PLA in franchising, she sits on the Queensland Law Society Franchising Committee, she is a past member of the Women in Franchising committee and a past member of the Franchise Council of Australia.
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