Kodak Sues Apple. Again.
Kodak is suing Apple again — but this time, it’s not for patent infringement, it’s for undermining Kodak’s efforts to sell off the very patents it’s asserting against Apple.
In a lawsuit filed late Monday in U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan, Kodak accused Apple of attemping to “delay and derail” its patent-sale efforts by wrongly claiming ownership over 10 patents Kodak is peddling as part of a portfolio worth some $2 billion.
“Apple’s strategy has been to use its substantial cash position to delay as long as possible the payment of royalties to Kodak and to interfere [with the sale],” Kodak said. “Apple and FlashPoint [an Apple spinoff that is also claiming ownership] are seeking to benefit from Kodak’s difficult financial position, which will be exacerbated if the debtors cannot obtain fair value for the patents.”
Notably, Kodak has identified Apple as among the largest infringers of patents in its portfolio, and a potential purchaser of them, as well. And now it’s implying that Apple’s intent, by asserting ownership, is to drive the patent’s value down so it can purchase it at a lower price.
Kodak, which says that the patent portfolio in question has generated billions of dollars in revenue for it over the last decade, is seeking a court order dismissing Apple’s ownership claims over the patents at issue here and putting an end to what it describes as a “public campaign to create uncertainty as to ownership of the patents.”