Kodak sues Apple over image sharing technology

Breaking news folks! Apple managed to go a whole day without a lawsuit yesterday, however normal service has promptly been resumed.

Eastman Kodak Company (who from now on shall be referred to as Kodak) is tipped by analysts to report a fourth straight annual net loss on January 26th. They haven’t had the best of years to be quite honest. The company actually filed two lawsuits yesterday in its hometown of Rochester, New York. The first against Apple, the second HTC Corp. Kodak is hoping to turn things around in the finance department by boosting the value of its patent portfolio, something they can’t do if everyone else is running around incorporating technologies that they are claiming the rights to.

Kodak is already battling Apple and Research in motion in a case that began two years ago, involving a patent over single image-previewing. This has met some delays, however, because the judge presiding over the case actually retired, so a result isn’t expected until September. However, Kodak CEO Antonio Perez has said this particular trade commission case could net Kodak upwards of $1 Billion in settlements.

The way Apple products capture and utilise images is one of the devices greatest selling points.

Kodak’s list of infringing products is as follows: The iPad 2, the iPhone and iPod touch, the HTC Flyer, EVO View 4G, Jetstream, Vivid, Amaze 4G, Desire, Hero S, Rezound, Rhyme, Sentation 4G and the Wildfire S. Basically, all the phones and tablets that the companies make.

Kodak’s chief operating officer, and president issued a statement saying:

“We’ve had numerous discussions with both companies in an attempt to resolve this issue, and we have not been able to reach a satisfactory agreement… Our primary interest is not to disrupt the availability of any product but to obtain fair compensation for the unauthorized use of our technology.”

Neither HTC nor Apple have released statements concerning the lawsuit.

Apple’s photo features are pretty special, so does it worry any of you that perhaps some of the concepts have been “stolen” from Kodak? Apple is getting caught up in a lot of lawsuits at the moment (like you haven’t noticed). But, more appropriate to you the customer, does it worry you that Apple might have gone too far somewhere? What if Apple had to change a feature on one of its devices, or worse still, stop selling one of its products? It could happen. Share your opinion in the comments!

Via: Engadget