Kodak inks patent cross-licensing deal with Nokia

Kodak, one of the biggest names in the digital imaging game, has just inked a deal with Nokia (NYSE: NOK) to cross-license each other’s patent portfolios. The deal wasn’t exactly explained in the kind of detail that we’d prefer to see, but the patent cross-licensing deal apparently “provides significant benefits to both companies, [and] is royalty bearing to Kodak.”

Kodak recently put their name on the Motorola MotoZINE ZN5 5-megapixel cameraphone. Interestingly, Kodak only provided the camera control UI on the ZN5, with the actual image sensor sourced from a third party. Could this deal between Kodak and Nokia be the first steps toward a future Nokia cameraphone sporting Kodak image sensors? Could we see Kodak’s camera UI gracing the next generation of Nokia Nseries handsets?

Your guess is as good as ours.

Kodak