Grant Gross
Senior Writer

Kodak, Sony end patent dispute

news
Jan 3, 20071 min

Under new agreement, companies will have access to each other's patent portfolios

Eastman Kodak Co. and Sony Corp. have ended a 3-year-old patent dispute and entered into a cross-licensing agreement, the two companies announced Wednesday.

Kodak had filed a lawsuit in March 2004, accusing Sony of infringing 10 patents covering digital camera technology issued to Kodak between 1987 and 2003. Sony filed a countersuit, accusing Kodak of infringing 10 of its patents, less than a month later.

Sony and Kodak will have broad access to each other’s patent portfolios under the new agreement, the companies said in press releases. The companies did not disclose the terms of the licensing agreement.

Kodak has entered into a cross-licensing agreement with Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB that will allow Sony Ericsson access to Kodak technology. Kodak will have access to Sony Ericsson’s technology, Kodak said.

Kodak was pleased to “have reached a mutually beneficial arrangement that advances the interests of the three companies,” Laura Quatela, Kodak’s managing director of intellectual property transactions, said in a statement.

Grant Gross

Grant Gross, a senior writer at CIO, is a long-time IT journalist who has focused on AI, enterprise technology, and tech policy. He previously served as Washington, D.C., correspondent and later senior editor at IDG News Service. Earlier in his career, he was managing editor at Linux.com and news editor at tech careers site Techies.com. As a tech policy expert, he has appeared on C-SPAN and the giant NTN24 Spanish-language cable news network. In the distant past, he worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Minnesota and the Dakotas. A finalist for Best Range of Work by a Single Author for both the Eddie Awards and the Neal Awards, Grant was recently recognized with an ASBPE Regional Silver award for his article “Agentic AI: Decisive, operational AI arrives in business.”

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