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By Bloomberg

Google Inc., creator of the world’s most- used Internet search engine and the maker of the Google Glass wearable optical display, received a patent on an invention that would allow users to create and get access to a searchable history of their real-world experiences.

Patent 9,087,058, which was issued July 21, covers a method and apparatus that includes a mobile computing device that transmits data to a server computing system. The user can later query the system to receive results that are relevant to the query and include the experience.

The Mountain View, California-based search-engine company said this would enable the user to retrieve data about a specific place, person or thing both from the Internet and from the user’s specific database.

Google filed the application for this patent in June 2012, with the assistance of Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman LLP of Los Angeles.

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Trademark

Mohawk Sued by Beaulieu Over ‘Healthy Home Certified’ Trademark

Mohawk Industries Inc., a maker of floor coverings, was sued for trademark infringement by Beaulieu Group.

The dispute is over Calhoun, Georgia-based Mohawk’s use of the phrase “Healthy Home Certified” to promote its carpeting. Beaulieu Group LLC, of Dalton, Georgia, said this infringed the “Healthy Home” trademark it has used since 2008 and registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2009

Beaulieu claims it is harmed by Mohawk’s use of the phrase and the public is likely to assume incorrectly that an affiliation exists between the two companies and their products.

It asked the court to bar Mohawk’s use of any marks that infringe “Healthy Home” and for awards of money damages and profit derived from the alleged infringement, as well as attorney fees and litigation costs.

Mohawk didn’t respond immediately to an e-mailed request for comment.

The case is Beaulieu Group LLC v. Mohawk Industries Inc., 4:15-cv-00124, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia (Rome).

New Zealand Distilleries at Odds Over Sailing Ship Label Logo

Two New Zealand distilleries are disputing the use of a sailing ship image, Fairfax Media’s Business Day reported.

Mikhail Khimich, a Russian who owns Waiwera Organic Winery, uses the image for the rum, vodka and gin it produces, according to Business Day.

Khimich’s former business partner Alex Kirichuk, from Ukraine, started Puhoi Organic Distillery and registered the image as a trademark, according to the news website.

Kirichuk told Business Day the dispute is a microcosm of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, saying, “I am Ukrainian and they are Russian. I believe it’s a kind of war on the territory of New Zealand.”

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Copyright

Twitter Tells Users Purloined Jokes Are No Laughing Matter

Twitter Inc., operator of the social-networking short- messaging service, has begun removing jokes that it says infringe others’ copyrights, the BBC reported.

San Francisco-based Twitter pulled re-postings of a joke by a Los Angeles freelance writer after she complained that the re- tweets were infringing her copyrights, according to the BBC.

The allegedly offending posts were removed and replaced with a message saying the Tweet “has been withheld in response to a report from the copyright holder,” the BBC reported.

Olga Levell, the writer, posted a statement on Twitter saying the jokes at issue were her intellectual property and that others couldn’t post them without her permission, according to the BBC.

Georgia Sues Independent Publisher for Copyright Infringement

Georgia sued a California company that published the southern state’s legal codes and the annotations on the laws and made them available for free online.

According to the July 21 complaint filed in Atlanta federal court, Public.Resource.org Inc. of Sebastopol, California has facilitated and given others the encouragement to download, print, copy and distribute sections of the Official Code of Georgia, including its copyrighted annotations.

This is done without permission and without compensation, the state said. The annotations are synopses of cases that interpret the code, summaries of the opinions of the state attorney general and summaries of research references.

The state said each of these is an original and creative work of authorship that’s protected by copyrights it owns. It asked the court to order Public Resource to quit unauthorized posting of the code sections and the annotations, and to order the seizure of all allegedly infringing copyrighted works.

Georgia also asked for awards of attorney fees and litigation costs.

Public Resource, which is trying to raise money through Indigogo Inc., said on the crowd-sourcing website that it’s posting the code because Georgia doesn’t make its official code with annotations available on the Internet.

The California organization said that although there’s an unofficial unannotated version available, “the site is really bad and the terms of use prohibit you from doing anything useful with it.”

On its website, Public Resource said it’s receiving pro bono legal help from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and law firms including Fenwick & West LLP, Alston & Bird LLP, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP and Morrison & Foerster LLP.

The case is Code Revision Commission v. Public.Resource.org Inc., 1:15-cv-02594, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta).

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Trade Secrets/Industrial Espionage

Dimation Ordered to Pay Full Judgment in Trade Secrets Case

Dimation Inc., a Minnesota electronics contract manufacturing services company, was ordered to pay the balance of an almost $1.9 million judgment in a trade-secrets case.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals said a negotiated settlement allowing Dimation to satisfy the judgment by paying only $600,000 was no longer in force because Dimation violated a court order.

In the initial suit, which began in state court in 2007, Analog Technologies Corp. of Burnsville, Minnesota, accused a former employee of taking trade secrets and using them to start Dimation, a competitor. In 2009 a jury found that misappropriation had occurred and awarded damages to Analog. The court ordered Dimation to quit using the trade secrets.

The parties later negotiated a settlement in which they agreed the judgment would be satisfied if Dimation paid $600,000 and complied with the order.

When Dimation sent Analog a check for $370,000 to make its final payment, Analog refused to cash it, saying the agreement was voided because Dimation violated the court order, according to the ruling.

In a subsequent hearing, a Dimation official acknowledged doing some work that violated the court order. The trial court said that Analog failed to prove the violation. Dimation then appealed.

In its ruling, the appellate court said records clearly showed that Dimation didn’t comply with the judge’s order. This voided the payment option, the court said, ordering Dimation to pay the full amount of the judgment.

Analog had also asked the appeals court to find Dimation in contempt for violating the order. The appeals court said the purpose of civil contempt is remedial rather than punitive, and because the entire judgment had been reinstated “finding Dimation in contempt would serve no further remedial purpose.”

The case is Analog Technologies Corp. v. Knutson, 14-1721, Minnesota Court of Appeals. The lower-court case is Analog Technologies Corp. v. Edward Knutson, A19-c1-07-007480, Dakota County District Court.