Kodak Patent Tossed by Judge

[gordo]

BY DANA MATTIOLI AND NATHALIE TADENA

Eastman Kodak Co. suffered a setback in a patent suit against Apple Inc. and Research In Motion Ltd., dealing a blow to the onetime film giant's efforts to raise billions of dollars by selling off its intellectual property.

Kodak had sued the iPhone and BlackBerry makers at the U.S. International Trade Commission, saying their devices infringed on its patent for previewing images with a digital camera. In a ruling Monday, a judge with the commission said the patent was invalid.

As such, the judge said neither Apple nor RIM had violated trade laws that could have led to an injunction .

 

[Happyprinter]

That's the Big Business Way. When you get yourself in a pinch for cash, SUE, SUE, SUE!!!

 

[gordo]

That's the Big Business Way. When you get yourself in a pinch for cash, SUE, SUE, SUE!!!

You might find this related topic RErint cartoon of interest:

best, gordo

 

[KevinC@EFI]

Just for clarity, it's a "recommendation", not a ruling - no patent has been "tossed". The same patent has been re-affirmed as valid multiple times by the same court in previous lawsuits. So, that recommendation is being appealed and Kodak fully expects it to be overturned... it's all part of the normal process / battle with these things. You also overlook that the judge did agree that they infringed the patent.

And I do take offense to the suggestion that we're just suing out of desperation for cash. Sure, cash is needed, but this is normal business to protect IP that any high-tech company does. Did you miss the ongoing battles between Apple and Samsung? Without patent protections to help preserve the value of invention, no company would invest so heavily into R&D - there would be no payback. You could simply wait for someone else to invent something valuable and copy it (like Apple has done in this case, and like they claim Samsung has done in their other case).

I don't want to start a flame battle here, but there are two sides to every story.