Kodak sues Apple, HTC over patents

[January 11, 2012]  ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) -- Eastman Kodak Co. has filed patent-infringement lawsuits against Apple Inc. and HTC Corp., claiming the smartphone makers are infringing several of its digital-imaging inventions.

The lawsuits, filed Tuesday in federal court, claim that some of Apple's iPhones, iPads and iPods and HTC's smartphones and tablet devices infringe four Kodak patents related to image transmission.

It also lodged complaints against Taiwan-based HTC and Apple, of Cupertino, Calif., before the U.S. International Trade Commission, a trade-dispute arbiter in Washington, D.C.

In addition, Kodak accuses HTC of infringing the same image-preview technology at the heart of a two-year-old dispute pending before the commission with Apple and Research in Motion.

The embattled photography pioneer is trying to negotiate a licensing deal with Apple and RIM it estimates could be worth up to $1 billion.

[Associated Press; By BEN DOBBIN]

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