Kodak has reached an agreement whereby it will sell a cache of patents worth US$525 million to a consortium of tech companies, including Apple, Google, Facebook and Samsung.
The beleaguered imaging company has been offloading parts of its business since a bankruptcy filing at the beginning of this year. According to Reuters, Kodak has sold its digital imaging patents to a consortium of technology companies brought together by Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corporation.
These companies include Adobe, Apple, Facebook, Google, Samsung, Amazon, Huawei, Research In Motion (RIM), Microsoft, HTC and Shutterfly. In total, 1100 patents changed hands, which Kodak hopes will help leverage the company out of bankruptcy by the start of next year.
When Kodak filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in January 2012, it started to not only sell off parts of its business, but go after other technology companies for patent infringements. Many of the cases were subsequently dropped, such as the Apple and RIM case that Kodak was instructed to drop under the order of the International Trade Council.
As part of this current deal, Kodak will give up any remaining intellectual property and patent cases against the buyers. Kodak will hold on to 9600 other patents on digital printing and imaging technology.