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By Bloomberg

Google Inc., maker of the world’s most-used search engine, received a patent on an invention that may advance instant-print photography in the digital realm.

Patent 8,937,727, issued Jan. 20, covers what Mountain View, California-based Google calls a “portable handheld device with multi-core image processor.”

According to the patent, the housing of the device contains a roll of print media, a printing mechanism, a guillotine for cutting the roll of print media, as well as a digital camera and a microcontroller for decoding the data signal and converting it into pixel data.

The print media, which can be made from a variety of materials, could have a preprinted message on its reverse side.

Google applied for the patent in September 2012, with the assistance of Chicago’s Leydig Voit & Mayer Ltd.

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Trademark

Voss of Norway, Cocktail Shaker Maker Settle Trademark Dispute

Voss of Norway ASA, a producer of bottled artesian water, and a Seattle-based maker of beverage-related products, have settled a trademark suit, according to a court filing.

Perlage Systems Inc. said in a Jan. 21 statement that the dispute centered on the cylindrical shape of a pressurizable cocktail shaker. In its October 2013 infringement suit, Olso, Norway’s Voss claimed the cocktail shaker infringed trademarks on its clear cylindrical water bottles.

In response to the suit, Perlage asked the court to order the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to invalidate Voss’s trademark registration for its bottle shape.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed in court papers. The filing stipulated that the dismissal of Voss’s claims is with prejudice, which bars further infringement claims.

Perlage’s counterclaim was dismissed without prejudice, leaving the company free to pursue further action against the Norwegian company in the future.

The case is Voss of Norway ASA v. Perlage Systems Inc., 2:13-cv-01971, U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington (Seattle).

Macy’s Suit Over Defunct Stores’ Brands Set for March 2 Trial

A trademark dispute involving brands of stores that have been acquired by Macy’s Inc., the Cincinnati-based department store chain, is set to go to trial March 2 in San Francisco federal court.

Macy’s filed an infringement suit in December 2011, accusing Strategic Marks LLC of Irvine, California, of making unauthorized use of brands associated with now-defunct department stores. Among the store brands that are allegedly infringed are Seattle’s Bon Marche; Marshall Field of Chicago; Boston’s Filene’s and Jordan Marsh; Brooklyn, New York’s Abraham & Strauss; and Robinsons-May, Bullock’s, and The Broadway, all from Los Angeles.

The products Macy’s said infringe the marks are sold through Strategic Marks’ retrodepartmentstores.com website, according to the complaint.

Macy’s said in court papers it hasn’t abandoned the “heritage brands” associated with the defunct stores, and that Strategic Marks’ sale of products bearing these marks constituted trademark infringement.

Strategic Marks responded to the complaint by saying its use of the marks fell into the law’s “fair use” provisions, and that Macy’s has abandoned the marks by failing to use them. According to the website, the goods Strategic Marks sells are typically T-shirts emblazoned with the defunct stores logos.

The case is Macy’s Inc. v. Strategic Marks LLC 3:11- cv-06198, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

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Copyright

Dish Anywhere, Unlike Aereo, Found Not to Infringe Copyright

Dish Network Corp., in a setback to television networks, won a ruling saying that its service, which lets users watch live TV shows on their mobile phones and tablets, doesn’t infringe broadcasters’ copyrights.

A federal judge in Los Angeles rejected claims by Fox Broadcasting Co. that Dish Anywhere isn’t different from Aereo’s Inc.’s streaming-television service, which the U.S. Supreme Court in June found illegally used antennas to capture live programs and send them to subscribers over the Internet.

The ruling, the first to apply the Supreme Court’s Aereo decision to other legal fights in which traditional TV networks seek compensation when programs are transferred beyond the set- top box, hands a victory to distributors that provide new ways for consumers to watch TV shows on mobile devices.

Fox said it’s disappointed about the issues that weren’t decided in its favor and pleased that the court agreed with some of its copyright-infringement claims.

The case is Fox Broadcasting Co. v. Dish Network LLC, 12- cv-04529, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).

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Trade Secrets/Industrial Espionage

Massachusetts Legislature Receives Flurry of Non-Compete Bills

Massachusetts lawmakers filed multiple bills last week limiting the use of noncompete agreements, the Boston Globe reported.

Such agreements, which bar an ex-employee from working for a competitor for a specified amount of time after leaving, are often an issue in trade-secrets cases, according to the newspaper.

The New England Venture Capital Association trade group is pushing for a change to a situation comparable to California’s, which bars noncompete agreements as a matter of public policy, according to the Globe.

Some Massachusetts business groups -- the Massachusetts High Technology Council, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industry of Massachusetts -- favor noncompete agreements, saying they are necessary to protect companies’ intellectual property and corporate strategies, the Globe reported.