Struggling Kodak has finally agreed to sell its digital imaging patents to Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corporation — two consortiums backed by Apple, Google, Microsoft, and others — for $525 million. Kodak will receive a portion of the money from 12 intellectual property licensees, with each licensee receiving rights to the patents, while another portion will be paid by Intellectual Ventures, which will then acquire the digital imaging patent portfolio, plus the new and existing licenses.
Qualcomm, the company that manufactures Apple’s baseband chips for iOS devices, has slammed the Cupertino company in an official ITC filing over its response to questions regarding the availability of injunctive relief over SEPs and criteria for FRAND royalty rates.
Qualcomm says Apple’s thoughts on the subject are a “sham,” that the company “should be ashamed of itself.”
The thermonuclear patent war may have a silver lining under its mushroom cloud thanks to some recent talks between Apple and Google’s Motorola Mobility. It appears the two companies are seriously considering putting and end to their global patent disputes via arbitration.
In a surprise turn of events, Apple and HTC have decided to end all ongoing patent disputes in favor of a 10-year licensing agreement. This is the exact kind of resolution courts around the globe have been hoping for from Apple and in fact, have begged for from Apple and Samsung. While there appears to be no such truce in store for Samsung and Apple, this latest bit of news at least shows hope of Apple scaling back on its patent crusade.
Schmidt insists Apple and Google are very good friends.
Google chairman Eric Schmidt is currently on a tour of Asia, where he announced the company’s $199 Nexus 7 tablet in Tokyo on Monday. During his announcement, Schmidt found some time to talk about Apple and its patent wars against other companies. Schmidt revealed that while Apple is a “very good partner,” he doesn’t agree with patent wars, and feels they “prevent choice” and innovation.
