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Kodak sues Apple for allegedly interfering with patent sales, has little nostalgia for your QuickTake
Kodak may have recently obtained clearance to sell some patents and help dig itself out of bankruptcy, but it wants to be extra-certain Apple is nowhere near potential buyers if a deal goes down. The former camera maker is suing Apple in hopes of making the former collaborator drop challenges to the ownership of 10 imaging patents from the early 1990s, when the two were still buddy-buddy enough to design the QuickTake camera line together. Claims by Apple and patent transfer recipient FlashPoint Technology are purportedly just attempts to stall any patent sale as long as possible and spook buyers away, forcing Kodak to make some hard decisions about its own lawsuits. That's not to say Kodak is a doe-eyed innocent here: Apple has accused Kodak of trying to sweep any patent disputes under the rug with bankruptcy as the pretext. Although the lawsuit is just one part of a larger story, it could more definitively answer whether or not Kodak has enough bullets left in its patent gun. [Image credit: Mikhail Shcherbakov, Flickr]
Kodak can't dismiss Apple's claims on patents, gets clearance to sell those patents regardless
Apple might have been denied a lawsuit against Kodak while the former camera maker is in bankruptcy, but that hasn't kept it from winning in court. A Manhattan judge has tossed a Kodak attempt to dismiss Apple's claims that it, not Kodak, owns 10 of those patents through collaborative work back in the QuickTake days. The ruling explicitly clears Kodak to sell the patents to the highest bidder and gives it a quicker path to recovery. However, the compromise also sends a warning to any potential buyers that Apple might have a stake in patents that change hands -- a decision that will either push Kodak to set some money aside or risk sticking a potential buyer with the bill. While who owns what is still up for debate, Kodak likely isn't eager to have another Sword of Damocles over its head that risks scaring away much-needed patent buyers. [Image credit: Pittaya Sroilong, Flickr]
