Apple and Google to Buy Kodak Patents

By Barbara E. Hernandez

| Monday, Dec 10, 2012 | Updated 6:26 AM PDT

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NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 30: A general view of atmosphere as The New York Philharmonic Principal Brass Quintet performs at the Apple Store - Upper West Side on November 30, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)

Apple and Google are pooling more than $500 million to buy Eastman Kodak's patents, according to reports.

By the two companies pooling their resources together it cuts costs and make sure both companies have access to Kodak's 1,100 patents according to and unnamed source, Bloomberg News reported. Other partnerships, such as the recent one between Apple, Microsoft and Research in Motion, bought Nortel Networks Corp.'s 6,000 patents for $4.5 billion. Google's $900 million was outbid.

"Apple and Google learned a lesson from the Nortel’s auction,” Richard Ehrlickman, president of IP Offerings, a patent brokerage and consulting company told Bloomberg. “They have decided to come together in this process to reduce the cost of purchasing the Kodak patents, while meeting their business needs.”

Both Apple and Google declined to comment on what they both termed as speculation.

While some say that the Kodak patents may cost upwards of $2 billion, others say that the patents aren't worth as much because they have been "widely licensed."

Nonetheless, the photo company's patents are still valuable and tech companies want protection from any future patent-infringement cases.

Related Topics Apple, Google, Eastman Kodak, Microsoft, patent

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