"Apple, Google team up to pursue Kodak patents" (AAPL; GOOG; EK)

From Bloomberg via the San Jose Mercury-News:

Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) have joined forces to offer more than $500 million to buy Eastman Kodak's patents out of bankruptcy, said people familiar with the situation. 

The two companies, competing for dominance of the smartphone market, have partnered after leading two separate groups this summer to buy some of Kodak's 1,100 imaging patents, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the process is private.

Unlikely partnerships are typical in patent sales because they allow competitors to neutralize potential infringement litigation. A group including Apple, Microsoft and Research in Motion bought Nortel Networks' more than 6,000 patents for $4.5 billion out of bankruptcy last year. Google lost the auction for those patents after making an initial offer of $900 million. 

"Apple and Google learned a lesson from the Nortel's auction," said Richard Ehrlickman, former vice president of Intellectual Property at IBM and president of IP Offerings, a patent brokerage and consulting company in Boca Raton, Fla. "They have decided to come together in this process to reduce the cost of purchasing the Kodak patents, while meeting  their business needs."...MORE

Time to file for that patent on getting patents.