The Eastman Kodak Co is accusing Sony Corp, the dominant maker of digital cameras, of riding to the top of that market at least partly on the back of Kodak technology.
In a suit filed Monday in US District Court in Rochester, New York, Kodak, which is struggling to make its brand name synonymous with digital photography, just as it once was with film, said Sony infringed on 10 patents issued to Kodak between 1987 and last year. The patents covered various aspects of capturing, storing and displaying both still and moving digital images.
"Sony has not violated any Kodak patent related to digital imaging and will fully defend any allegations made in this regard," Sony said in a statement.
It is not Kodak's first tussle over these patents. In 2001 it sued Sanyo for similar infringement. The two companies settled when Sanyo agreed to license the technologies from Kodak. Kodak has since licensed its technology to Olympus and a few other camera makers. According to Gerard Meuchner, a Kodak spokesman, Sony had been trying to negotiate a licensing arrangement with Sony for three years, and filed suit only after it became clear the talks were leading nowhere.
"We've invested millions of dollars in developing these technologies," Meuchner said, "and we have an obligation not only to our shareholders but to other licensees to protect that property."
That is not a revolutionary concept, of course, but analysts say that for Kodak it represents a relatively new mindset.
"If this suit had been filed by IBM or Microsoft, nobody would have noticed," said Ulysses Yannas, who follows Kodak at Buckman, Buckman & Reid. "But people are shocked because until recently Kodak was neither willing to license its technology, nor dead set on protecting it."
In fact, Kodak's most famous role in industrial technology wars was as defendant, not plaintiff. In 1991, after a court battle that dragged on for 15 years, Kodak agreed to pay the Polaroid Corp US$925 million to settle a patent-infringement case involving peel-apart instant films. Earlier this month Kodak was one of several companies, including Sony, named in a suit by Magnequench International, which charges that they have violated its patents on magnetic tape technologies.
Kodak invented the first digital camera in the mid-1970s and holds nearly 1,000 patents related to digital photography. But lately the company has been rethinking its entire patent portfolio, looking for ways to turn its technologies into revenues without compromising its competitive position.
In January, for example, it formed a new company, Appairent Technologies Inc, to commercialize its technologies for wireless transmission of data and images. And earlier this week it announced that it was buying several digital printer lines from Heidelberger Druckmachinen, including Heidelberger's share of NexPress, a joint venture between the companies to which Kodak had contributed many printing patents.
"We have a rich history of innovation and patent creation, and we think there is much value to be gained by commercializing it," Meuchner said.
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