“Battle lines are forming in Eastman Kodak Co.’s patent sale ahead of Monday’s initial bid deadline,” Ashby Jones, Dana Mattioli and Mike Spector report for The Wall Street Journal.
“At least two groups are expected to bid on Kodak’s trove of 1,100 patents, with a bevy of technology and patent heavyweights picking sides and competing for the patents, said people familiar with the matter,” Jones, Mattioli and Spector report. “Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Intellectual Ventures Management LLC, a patent aggregation firm, are teaming to form one bidding group, the people said. The other consortium includes Google Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Inc., HTC Corp. and another patent aggregation firm, RPX Corp., the people said.”
Jones, Mattioli and Spector report, “The people familiar with the discussions cautioned that work on bids could continue over the weekend, with alliances changing and other bidders potentially emerging… A bankruptcy court supervised auction of Kodak’s patents is set for Aug. 8. The patents are being sold in two lots: the digital capture portfolio related to capturing and processing images on cameras, smartphones and tablets; and the Kodak Imaging Systems and Services patents related to storing and analyzing images, among other things. Suitors view the digital capture trove as the most valuable… Kodak has said both lots of patents could be worth up to $2.6 billion combined. Others with knowledge of the portfolios said that initial bids are unlikely to approach that figure.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The Cupertino Colossus and their new little buddy vs. the Axis of Do Know Evil. Sounds like lots of fun ahead.
We await Google’s bid of Euler’s number with bated breath.
If Google loses this one, too, will they send out their head ambulance chaser to whine about how all patents (except Googles, of course) should be washed clean in unicorn tears and then contributed to some sort of giant tech commune?
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These days it’s like a freaking Sergio Leone Western. Apple vs. Google vs. Microsoft. The good, the bad, and the ugly all trying for a few dollars more, and which is which depends on the situation.
Currently I’ve been viewing Apple as the good, Google as the bad and Microsoft as the plain butt ugly (via their Windows 8).
Even if it’s ugly, it’s the most functional of all by way of Windows 8. It’s up to the user to make the home screen pretty.
I figure Microsoft as just plain ‘old Stupid.
Its a win -win for google. If they get the patents good, if they dont they copy and win in court. Everyone happy
Do they have to be consortiums? Why is Apple teaming up with Microsoft and a patent troll?
Apple and Microsoft are frienemes, while Google is nothing but a second rate, trying hard copycat.
No, of course not. BUT, if you are competing against a consortium, presumably they are adding their little piles of money together. It is easier if you put your own little consortia together.
They just showed Tim Berners-Lee using a NeXT computer at the Olympics.
hands down the best moment of the Opening Ceremonies
What will Apple do with the patent for Porta 400 film?
I will assume you are be sarcastic. Otherwise, re-read the OP. Particularly the part: The patents are being sold in two lots: the digital capture portfolio related to capturing and processing images on cameras, smartphones and tablets; and the Kodak Imaging Systems and Services patents related to storing and analyzing images, among other things.
No film, no chemistry, nothing old school or analog.
What ever happens. Google and Samsung CAN NOT get their hands on these patents. It would be a disaster. And it’s kinda how Microsoft has become almost an allied in this fight against the advertising company and it’s evil companions.
Microsoft innovates with Windows Phone while Google and Samsung copy and rip off and poorly imitate.