Kodak files for bankruptcy

Yesterday, Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy after having failed to raise enough cash to turn the company around. Last Friday, Eastman Kodak Co. filed a lawsuit against Fujifilm Corp. claiming that some of the Japanese company’s cameras infringe on the digital imaging technology created by Kodak. Kodak has been trying to collect money through lawsuits and patent licensing fees, reports localizedusa.com.

In the lawsuit, Kodak claims that Fujifilm is infringing five separate patents dealing with capturing, storing, previewing, and transmitting images. Kodak licensed the same technology to more than 30 other companies including Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp.

At the beginning of last week, Kodak also sued Apple Inc. and HTC Corp. claiming that their smart phones, tablets, and other devices infringed on Kodak patents dealing with the transmittal of images (see IPWire, search: Kodak). The once flourishing film company “has collected $1.9 billion since 2008 relying on patent licensing fees and lawsuits,”  localizedusa.com reports. Perhaps Kodak would have been better off if their IP strategy had been to sue for patent infringement earlier, rather until waiting until it was so close to bankruptcy.