OEM claims Kodak has infringed seven patents relating to manufacture and sale of printers.
Law360 reports that a lawsuit has been filed against Eastman Kodak Co. by Ricoh Americas Corp. over claims that the OEM has infringed seven of Ricoh’s patents through manufacturing and selling certain printers; with Ricoh claiming that by selling the infringing products, Kodak “is inducing others to infringe patents as well”.
A statement from Ricoh reportedly read: “Each such instance of the manufacture, use, import, sale and/or offering for sale by Kodak of each of its infringing products is a separate act of infringement that has resulted or will result in specifically identifiable and irreparable harm to the Ricoh parties at the time of such manufacture, use, import, sale and/or offering for sale by Kodak”; and the company seeks to permanently block Kodak from continuing with the allegedly infringing activities.
The patents in dispute are US patent numbers 6,209,048; 6,231,652 B1; 6,256,662 B1; 7,344,326 B2; 7,508,533 B2; 7,712,989 B2; and 7,719,702 B2.
A number of other infringement claims have been recently filed against Kodak, including one in January by Kyocera Corp., which sued the OEM over 15 camera and printer patents; as well as claims from photo-sharing website Shutterfly Inc. which alleged that Kodak’s mobile photo book app “violates an agreement not to launch a service similar to the one it sold Shutterfly for $23.8 million (€18.3 million) last year”.
In April, Kodak announced plans to sell part of its Document Imaging business to Brother for $210 million (€161 million), with the OEM aiming to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy by mid-2013.