While the Eastman Kodak Company might be facing financial troubles galore with rumors of it reportedly about to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, the company seems to have decided that it is not going to go down without a fight. Confident after winning a patent infringement suit filed against it by Apple last year, Kodak has went ahead and sued three main cellphone makers alleging more than four patent infringements by each of these companies. The companies who are in the line of fire include Apple, HTC and RIM.
The suit accuses Apple of infringing upon four of its patents related to digital camera images. Special treatment has been meted out for HTC whom Kodak alleges to have infringed upon one more of Kodak’s patents. These suits have been filed in the Western District Court of New York. Now, if you thought this was all, wait, there’s more. Kodak had also filed separate complaints alleging patent infringements by these companies in the US International Trade Commission – the same entity which had ruled in favor of them the last time around when Apple had sued Kodak. Looks like the legal head honchos at Kodak seems to be highly confident of winning this one too – just like they did the last one.
Anyway, we haven’t yet told you what actually Kodak says these companies are infringing upon. Well, according to them, these companies have violated patents pertaining to sharing of photographs directly from the camera without the use of a PC. That’s right. Kodak apparently has the rights and had obtained patents for this technology after believing that it would be desirable for people to share images with others without having to first transfer captured images to a PC.
Kodak is pretty clear about what it wants from these companies. Either stop making and selling these products OR pay them damages for infringing upon their patents. Now, since none of the companies that have been sued have responded to this fresh lawsuit it remains to be seen how this one ends up.
Anyway, grab your pop corns folks!
