The two OEMs have settled a case over patent licences and royalties.
Democrat and Chronicle reported on the settlement agreement, which saw Ricoh agree to pay Kodak nearly $76 million (€55 million) to settle a case that began in April 2012, with Kodak accusing Ricoh of failing to provide royalties from its use of Kodak patents.
The claims by Kodak included those pertaining to Pentax Imaging Systems, a company Ricoh purchased in 2011 that Kodak claimed “had never signed any digital imaging licensing agreement” with it in terms of camera patents, and so meant Ricoh owed Kodak royalties back as a consequence. Ricoh’s response argued that it had paid Kodak “everything owed by the patent licence agreement for its own products”, and that there was no proof Pentax had infringed any Kodak patents.
The case, which went to trial this week at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, saw the cash settlement agreed “regardless of the trial’s outcome”, with the money split between $69 million (€49.9 million) to “settle various claims” and $7 million (€5 million) in interest.
Despite Kodak selling the patents related to the case in its patent sale last year, the settlement money will still go to Kodak, as it owned them “during the nine years between Ricoh first signing a licensing agreement and its Pentax takeover”. In another unrelated case last year, Ricoh filed a lawsuit against Kodak for patent infringement.