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Codebreaker

Kodak’s last stand

Marc Sanchez Jan 11, 2012
Eastman Kodak is a company fighting to stay alive. In what’s seen as a last-ditch effort to stay afloat, it put some of its patent portfolio up for sale recently. These patents include some of the foundations of digital photography. Kodak, you see, invented digital photography way back in 1975. No takers yet on the patents, so Kodak is trying to put them to good use by filing lawsuits against Apple and HTC.
The core argument, as Reuters reports, is that “Kodak said it obtained its patents after concluding it would be desirable for people to easily share pictures from their digital cameras without first transferring them to personal computers. It said Apple and HTC are infringing the patents by selling and importing mobile camera phones, tablets and other devices, among them Apple’s iPad 2, the iPod touch and various iPhones.”
It’s like that scene in a horror movie where the slasher is finally dead… or IS he??? He comes leaping out of the lake for one last strangle-hold, until (gasp, cough) our hero finishes the job. I’m not saying Kodak is evil, but those patents do look like they’re dripping with pond scum.

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