Kodak sues Fujifilm as stock slumps

What a joke of a company Kodak has become. If the only way they can make money is by being patent trolls, they should just give up.

They refused to transform themselves to the new realities of today...this is what happens.

Give it up...you're failed company that couldn't keep up with technology...go away and die peacefully!

Stupid.. those royalties are priceless.. how can they even consider selling it.. cant they just restructure the company without selling those patents.. STUPID!!

@thepro: they aren't "patent trolls." They're a company that invented a lot of the technology behind digital imaging, and they are, rightly, making sure they reap the benefits of the work they did. They aren't forcing other companies to use their patented inventions.

@cornbread1: it wasn't so much of a refusal as it was a failure. Kodak made a fortune in the last century selling dumbed-down, crappy film cameras to the masses. This philosophy backfired when they put all their eggs in the "Easy Share" basket. I've never seen a more infuriating, ham-fisted attempt at getting pictures from camera to computer. Kodak was never about giving people credit for their ability to learn how to do something, they were always about trying to find ways to keep any idiot from failing. That worked for them for almost 100 years, but times have changed.

@Mirai: it's not that they didn't keep up with technology! As I said, they invented most of the technology behind digital imaging as we know it today. They just didn't successfully apply that technology to consumer products.

@anglootaku: they aren't selling the patents. They have licensed the patents to many companies and have made a fortune by doing so. The problem is that the licensees have completely eclipsed Kodak as designers and manufacturers of consumer products. So Kodak is known as the industry as innovators in photography, but among consumers, they're perceived as no more than the purveyors of dumbed-down, Easy Share crap.

They still make some pretty good film, though. Even if we can't get Kodachrome any more.

@thepro... PATENT TROLLS???..... they are the one who INVENTED the techonology.... they deserve a piece if somebody wants to copy them!

The problem they are having now is that everybody knows they're on the ropes, and nobody wants to be the fool who pays full-price for a patent when they can be had a bargain basement prices once bankruptcy kicks in. So everybody (including Fujifilm) is sitting like vultures in a tree waiting for Kodak to finally give up the ghost. Fujifilm is betting Kodak will expire before their patent dispute gets settled. THEN watch the feeding frenzy start!

@John, I am aware they license it, but on the article it states they may sell their patents due to bankruptcy protection, companies do sell their patents also, only recently IBM sold several key patents relating to mobile technology to Google.

Bloomberg said three anonymous people familiar with the negotiations said Kodak may seek protection from creditors within weeks and then auction its digital-imaging patents, which analysts estimate could fetch at least $2 billion. Kodak put them up for sale in July, but has seen little interest.