Kodak sells imaging patents for $525M

Eastman Kodak has secured the sale of 1,100 digital imaging patents for $525 million, with licences to be issued to a group of 12 companies – reported to include Apple, Google and Samsung. A portion of the cost for the portfolio will be split between the 12 licensees, which have been organised by Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corporation. Each licensee will receive rights with respect to the acquired intellectual property and “certain other Kodak patents”. RIM, HTC, Huawei, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft are also part of the consortium, according to the court filing seen by Bloomberg.

Another portion of the fee will be paid by Intellectual Ventures, which is acquiring the patents. The proceeds from the patent sale will go towards Kodak’s efforts to exit bankruptcy in the first half of 2013. The sale of the patents, which cover digital image capture, manipulation and sharing, was one of the company’s restructuring objectives.