Camera maker Eastman Kodak has launched a federal lawsuit against Sony, saying its rival's digital cameras and camcorders infringe on Kodak patents.
The suit, which seeks unspecified damages and an injunction barring further infringement, was filed late on Monday in U.S. District Court in Rochester, N.Y., according to Kodak spokesman Gerard Meuchner. Meuchner said the suit alleges that various Sony products infringe on 10 Kodak technology patents that were issued between 1987 and 2003.
A Sony representative declined to comment. It appears Kodak may have more than just Sony in its crosshairs. Meuchner said the camera maker is interested in licensing its technology to companies that may be using its intellectual property, but declined to name those manufacturers or say whether it is in discussions with them. "We cannot discuss talks we may or may not be having with others," Meuchner said, adding that he also cannot speculate on whether more suits may be in the offing.
News source: C|Net News.com
The suit, which seeks unspecified damages and an injunction barring further infringement, was filed late on Monday in U.S. District Court in Rochester, N.Y., according to Kodak spokesman Gerard Meuchner. Meuchner said the suit alleges that various Sony products infringe on 10 Kodak technology patents that were issued between 1987 and 2003.
A Sony representative declined to comment. It appears Kodak may have more than just Sony in its crosshairs. Meuchner said the camera maker is interested in licensing its technology to companies that may be using its intellectual property, but declined to name those manufacturers or say whether it is in discussions with them. "We cannot discuss talks we may or may not be having with others," Meuchner said, adding that he also cannot speculate on whether more suits may be in the offing.
News source: C|Net News.com
- Fixed rehashing on change of Daylight Saving Time (DST) [MightyKnife]. To disable this patch, add "AdjustNTFSDaylightFileTime=0" in "[eMule]" section in preferences.ini file.
- Fixed bug with colors and known-type in searchlist control after files were canceled and/or added/removed from share.
- Fixed bug with sorting by category in download listview.
- USS will temporarly be limited to a minimum of 10K until we correct a couple issues at lower speeds.
- Fixed bug in UDP socket with ReaskFilePing which was not answered for files in most cases
- Fixed bug in IP filter; adjacent ranges with different levels were merged.
- IRC now handles sound events. (/sound [*.wav] [message]) (Sounds are stored in "../eMule/Sounds/IRC" dir)
- Fix KadID bug which created some clusters and reported bad user counts..
- Packets for the UDP socket send queue now have a lifetime now to keep from creating a backlog of packets.
- fixed a bug, that resumed 2 (instead of 1) files for the function "start next paused file, when a files completes"
- correction in the statistics for source-type passive - and several minor GUI fixes
- fixed invoking the comment page
- fixed Chicane webinterface template, to be able to start downloads from searchresults
- Fixed a IRC crash bug thanks to reports from several irc ops..
- Fixed the IRC Accept links from friends only option.
- IRC default name gets a pseudo random nick on connect to avoid nick collisions.
- Extra IRC filter options.
- Fixed flaw in exception handling which did not immediatly disconnect a client which sends invalid file data packets.
- Fixed bug in UDP socket with processing of a received file status.
- Fixed several flaws in Kad window with connect and bootstrap function/buttons.
- Put back ping info for USS and small adjustment to USS - zz
- Removed some debug info in the upload bars
+1
Sony might not be very good in the eyes of purists ("Oh, my 37 speaker surround sound Bang & Olufson sound system is VASTLY superior" - yeah, no **** brainiac) but they make damn good products.
I've had a few Sony items now, and I know a few friends who have too and they just work so well and last forever - like a friend who still had an original (the first type released) Sony CD walkman.. Sony TV's, their MiniDisc players.. they are just rock solid and how all electronics should be.
They have a short warranty because THEY KNOW THEIR PRODUCTS ARE DURABLE AND WILL LAST A LOT LONGER.
Seems like every freaking company/organization is doing this these days. Company A supposedly violates companie B's patent, so compay B waits several years to make way more money on royalties from company A.
This is at least the 4th late lawsuit like this i've seen in the last year or so.
So Kodak start to lose out in the market because they thought it best not to fully embrace the digital world, and then when that industry takes off around them they throw their teddy bear out of the pram.
Losers, total losers.
Microsoft didn't embrace the internet at first... are they losers too? (Well in the unsuccessful way!!) No I think they did alright. You underestimate Kodak and the sheer number of patents and creations that it has under it's belt. They may a lot of money by licensing those out to companies... if Sony doesn't want to pay for them... they will now via this law suit!
It's not like this popped up overnight in the back room of their corporate office. The patents in question were filed anywhere from last year to FIFTEEN YEARS ago, 1989. Kodak had previously relied on their superior film for revenues, and over the last five years have restructured to meet the changing market - Kodak is one of the earliest companies AFAIK to develop digital SLR cameras in the 15MP range. They obviously had plans and invested in digital R&D and now can claim what is rightfully theirs.
Stop spouting off about things you don't know anything about. A cursory glance at an article doesn't count.
Gotta get there money back some how!
Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!
Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.