Kodak has announced today that it they have received the initial determination in their infringement case that has been going on since early 2010. If you recall, Kodak made claims that both Apple and RIM infringed on various Kodak-owned image patents. The Administrative Law Judge has concluded that both iPhone 3G and certain BlackBerry devices infringe Kodak's patents however those patents have been found (again) to be invalid. There is still some way to go for this all to be over, so we'll see what happens from here. Keep reading for the full press release.

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If you remember waaaaayyy back in January of 2010, Eastman Kodak had brought forth some allegation that both RIM and Apple were infringing upon some of Kodak's image and image processing patents. We obviously haven't heard much in the way of progress thus far, but a few weeks back the US ITC had delayed ruling on on the case and a judge moved the date for a court ruling to September 21, 2012. With the announcement of Kodak filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week, RIM had this to say:

RIM is ready and willing to proceed to trial today but Kodak asked the court to delay the trial until August. Moreover, RIM is willing to pay for its use of valid patents--RIM pays hundreds of millions of dollars annually for patent licenses. But RIM believes that Kodak's main patent in this dispute, the '218, is neither valid nor infringed and RIM's position was supported by one of the nation's most respected patent judges, the International Trade Commission's Chief Judge Luckern.

So while RIM is ready to settle the dispute as needed, it's still unclear as to what Kodak will do from this point after filing for bankruptcy in the midst of the lawsuit.

Some of you all may remember back to CES when Kodak was showing off their new BlackBerry offerings. Shortly after playing friendly at CES, Kodak then decided to bring forth some patent issues with Research In Motion and Apple at the same time, claiming both companies were infringing upon Kodaks image and image processing patents. Kodak then took the big leap and went to the ITC and asked them to investigate the issues at hand and most recently the ITC has stated they will certainly be investigating.

Now most times patent issues arise they tend to make big waves. Not always because of the possible impacts but, mainly because the companies that are claiming infringement are oft labelled "patent trolls". This doesn't seem to be the case with Kodak vs, RIM and Apple as Kodak claims they have been fighting this for many years now and having previously won settlement deals over the issues with Samsung. With the ITC now investigating the claims, as the Canadian Press points out these types of cases are beginning to pretty much seem like "the cost of doing business" in the technological age. Ride out as much use as you can before you have to pay up for licensing fees.

Its become common, so much so that the issues no longer have an affect on stock prices or investor relations. Either way, it seems as though Kodak will have their day to see if they were indeed right in their claims. In the meantime though, what do you all think? Has patent issues become a part of doing business or should something be done with the patent system improve upon it? The amount of time wasted in court could be better used, I think anyways.

Kodak was on hand at the BlackBerry booth CES 2010 demoing their new app for BlackBerry that allows you to print documents wirelessly from your BlackBerry. Check out the video above to see the demo. Cool stuff. Yet another thing you can do with your BlackBerry. :) Only potential downside here is that the integreation is via Documents2Go, so if you're one of those people who uninstalls it to save app space you likely won't be taking advantage of this.