KODAK COURTS PATENT BUYERS

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Eastman Kodak courts patent buyers

Eastman Kodak, seeking to generate cash from its intellectual property, has signed confidentiality agreements with numerous potential buyers of patents it put up for sale last month, reports Bloomberg.

Kodak, headed for its sixth annual loss in the past seven years, is trying to generate cash for its inkjet printers and other digital businesses.The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has delayed a ruling on Kodak’s attempts to win $1 billion in licensing fees from Apple and Research In Motion (RIM) for image preview technology used in cameras.

For a company formed in the 19th Century, Kodak has a surprising number of patents that relate to modern-day mobile computing, says paidContent.org.It has kept Apple and RIM busy at the ITC over patents related to camera phones, and last month it revealed that a group of around 1 000 patents that do not relate to its core imaging business would be available to interested buyers.

Eastman Kodak may hold patents worth five times more than the business itself, making the 131-year-old camera company a target in the billion-dollar hunt for inventions used in mobile phones according to Forbes.The 1 000-plus patents Kodak put up for sale 20 July may generate more than $2 billion, according to MDB Capital Group.To put that number in context, Kodak’s total market capitalisation is about $900 million. When evaluating claims like these, investors should give extra attention to how these valuations are assessed.

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September 6, 2011 at 8:28 AM