Apple and Google Join Forces for Kodak Patents

It isn’t every day that Apple and Google work together. However, when it comes to patents, especially the one that is being hold by Kodak is at stake, the two companies temporarily forgets its rivalry between one another. This is because both Google and Apple are jointly offering more than $500 million for Kodak’s 1,100 imaging patents.

As reported by Bloomberg, the two companies are competing in the smartphone market. However, the possibility of using Kodak’s imaging patents will allow both companies to advance even more in terms of imaging especially when some of these patents are very valuable. In addition to that, joining forces also means that they will be spending less amount of money as compared with buying them alone. Both Google and Apple will also prevent any costly legal cases from infringement lawsuit should they both able to hold the patents together.

Kodak had earlier filed for bankruptcy protection this year and plans to exit bankruptcy by the first half of 2013. To do that, they are selling a lot of their assets including their valuable patents. $500 million is a lot of money but to both Google and Apple, it is just a small investment for a bigger plan.