“Apple Inc. and Eastman Kodak Co. clashed in federal bankruptcy court over the ownership of patents Kodak is planning to sell as part of its restructuring,” David McLaughlin reports for Bloomberg.
“Kodak said Apple wants to disrupt the planned auction by claiming ownership of 10 patents and asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper in Manhattan to reject the personal computer maker’s claims,” McLaughlin reports. “Gropper didn’t immediately rule on the issue at a hearing today, saying he would issue a decision ‘as quickly as I can.'”
McLaughlin reports, “The hearing in bankruptcy court comes after Kodak lost a patent case against Apple and Research in Motion Ltd. The U.S. International Trade Commission on July 20 upheld a judge’s findings that neither Apple nor RIM violated Kodak’s rights in the patent. Kodak said it would appeal.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Bankrupt Kodak loses key Apple patent ruling – July 22, 2012
Poor Kodak. I mean that. Bankrupt and even the assets it thinks it can sell may already belong to another company. Apple is doing what it needs to do, but I am sorry to watch that venerable company go through its death throes.
I would agree if their so-called assets weren’t ripped off from Apple.
If all they have left is ideas stolen from Apple them they need to die and yesterday.
Having worked at EK when this IP was generated, and if it’s the sub sampled and split view finder feed from the imager idea, implemented in the Apple QuickTake 100 and the Kodak DC40 (which I still have engineering samples of each) I believe EK engineers came up with that concept prior to while working with Apple. Apples camera was released 1st, but it was done by EK. This co-development muddies up who can claim what exactly from that era unfortunately.
Thanks for your rational insights!
That is what I was wondering. The QuickTake was co-developed, so that makes this very difficult to pick thru.
Hi Bek. I’ll bet a met you at Kodak at some point. I remember plenty of contention with Apple most of the way through the development of digital at Kodak. I knew many of the coders for Kodak’s software. Contention was the rule there, as well as some remarkably silly decisions that resulted. I had to carefully walk the tightrope to remain an Apple advocate and remain on friendly terms along the twisted path.
READ: ‘I’ll bet I met you…’
If I said that I worked on Genesis Beta, the PIW, FPX, etc while in IRAD-E and the Store, KPN, YGP, when I was part of the CMO and finished in KPro…plus many many other projects in R&D and Production… Yes, we might have met…
You were at Kodak a lot longer than I was! I’d be intrigued to hear your experiences in R&D and its tussles with Kodaks marketing oriented management. My view of the situation 1992-1998 was far from pretty.
Would be great to hear some of the Kodak experiences from both of you–particularly from that time period. Kodak used to be a Behemoth in the industry..
I think Apple should buy Kodak, and be done with all this wasted effort and cash. Surely they can find someone of vision to drag the company into the twenty-first century, perhaps hand in hand with Apple.