Earlier this week Kodak initiated legal action against LG and Samsung over camera patent violations, and RIM was also on the chopping block, but they aren’t going to wait for Kodak to throw the first punch. The BlackBerry-maker is taking pre-emptive defensive action, claiming in Dallas courts, “RIM denies that the Kodak patents are enforceable, valid and/or infringed by the accused products”.
Apparently correspondences regarding BlackBerry Pearl 8100 and the BlackBerry 8700 and BlackBerry 8800 models have been going on since August 2007, which seems a little bizarre considering the 8700 and 8800 don’t have cameras in them. The patents in question involve image processing, however, so it’s likely that software rendering is a part of the equation. Motorola and Nokia are already licensing Kodak technology, so a precedent has been set with other manufacturers, but that could be a pricey route that RIM, LG and Samsung would want to avoid as much as possible. How much those companies dole out in royalties all hinges on the legitimacy of the complaint and the strength of RIM’s defense, so we’ll have to wait and see how this bout unfolds.
[via Canadian Press]