Bankruptcy and IP make for strange bedfellows. Apple and a number of organizations that have previously had patent wars have teamed up to buy the intellectual property of the bankrupt Kodak — who was only recently coming after them in the court of law. According to reports, a group of 12 companies, including Apple, Google, RIM, Samsung, and more, will be paying $525 million for the Kodak patent suite.
The Apple/Kodak legal battles go back to 2010, when the ailing company went after a number of companies for using patents related to digital photography without permission. Kodak had some luck in these cases, but not enough to rescue them from bankruptcy.
The full list of the companies who bought up Kodak’s patents are:
Apple, Inc.
Research In Motion Limited
Google Inc.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Adobe Systems Incorporated
HTC Corporation
Facebook, Inc.
Fujifilm Corporation
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Amazon Fulfillment Services, Inc.
Shutterfly, Inc.
Microsoft Corporation
Strange bedfellows, huh? A number of these companies are currently involved in legal battles against one another. However, by teaming up for this patent suite, it means that all of the companies get access to technology that’s some of the building blocks to digital imaging — and they can’t sue each other over it.
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