The IT Nerd

Seeing as I just posted about Apple winning round one of their patent battle against Nokia, it seemed only right that I report on the fact that Kodak has won a round of their patent lawsuit against RIM and Apple:

Kodak rose as much as 25 percent in late trading after the U.S. International Trade Commission said it will review a judge’s findings from January that Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry don’t violate Kodak’s patent on a way to preview digital images using less processing power and storage space. The ITC, which can block imports of products that violate U.S. patents, plans to make a final determination by May 23.

Just like the Apple/Nokia lawsuit, May 23 won’t solve anything. After all, I said that this lawsuit was dead a little while ago and we’re still talking about it. But seeing as Apple and RIM are looking at paying up to a billion dollars, we might see a flurry of cheques being written to make this go away.

You might remember that Kodak sued RIM and Apple over the fact that they claimed to have invented the digital camera back in 1975 and they weren’t getting paid for it. Today, they got the news that their patent was found to be invalid by a U.S. International Trade Commission administrative law judge. But somehow, Kodak had a positive spin on the situation:

“The ALJ’s recommendation in this case represents a preliminary step in a process that we are extremely confident will conclude in Kodak’s favor,” the company said in its press release. Kodak pointed out that another judge had upheld the patent claim in a separate suit against Samsung and LG Electronics. After that preliminary ruling, Kodak and Samsung agreed last January to a cross-licensing deal. Kodak also lists LG as a licensee of its imaging patents.

Kodak also said the ITC’s Office of Unfair Import Investigations had agreed with its interpretation of the patent.

Sure. Whatever. Kodak, please stop trying to sue companies in order to stay afloat now that you don’t make film anymore. Work on making better products. Create some kick ass photo printers or something. Don’t become a patent troll. It really doesn’t make you look good.

Kodak invented the digital camera way back in 1975, but apparently they don’t think they’re getting paid for their work. Therefore, they’re suing both RIM and Apple for Patent Infringement:

The Kodak complaint, filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), specifically claims that Apple’s iPhones and RIM’s camera-enabled BlackBerry devices infringe a Kodak patent that covers technology related to a method for previewing images. Separately, Kodak filed two suits today against Apple in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York that claim the infringement of patents related to digital cameras and certain computer processes.

Kodak claims that they’ve tried to work on resolving this with both companies, but that’s failed so they’re left with no other choice than to sue. Given that  they recently won a judgment in a similar ITC case against Samsung, and a similar lawsuit against Sun Microsystems back in 2004, they’ve got decent odds IMHO.

My take? It will go something like this:

• Lots of chest thumping possibly followed by the exchanging of threats, followed by a possible counter suit
• Undisclosed sums of money will then exchange hands followed by cross licensing agreements of some sort
• Lawyers will get rich
• Business as usual for consumers

In other words, the same thing that almost always happens in a case like this.