From AppleInsider, Jan. 13, 2015:
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday reassigned to Apple a Kodak patent covering a mobile remote control camera system, reports of which supposedly catalyzed a 12-percent drop in shares of action cam maker GoPro.
Source: USPTO
Apple's newly reassigned U.S. Patent No. 8,934,045 illustrates a portable digital camera controllable via a wrist-worn remote. Taken at face value, the document appears to hint at Apple's ambitions to enter the action cam market, but a quick look at the patent's history reveals a slightly different story.
The invention is credited to Keith Stoll Karn, Marc Krolczyk and Kazuhiro Joza, who reassigned the patent to Kodak in 2012. Subsequently published as an application in 2013, Kodak's fairly exhaustive "Digital camera system having remote control" filing details a ruggedized digital camera and accompanying wrist-worn remote control, as well as underwater capabilities, stabilization technology and mounting options for helmets and bike handlebars. Language also refers to contemporary GoPro products by name, citing the devices as background information.
A spurious report from Patently Apple claimed the property as an in-house Apple invention that "appears to now incorporate intellectual property from Kodak." A side-by-side comparison of the application as assigned to Kodak and the patent as granted to Apple shows only minor changes, with nearly all alterations limited to housekeeping variations made to bring the document's citations up to date.
Coverage from mainstream media sources, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, perpetuated the disingenuous report by incorrectly citing the patent as "filed by [Apple] in 2012." In reality, the patent was acquired by Kodak shortly before being sold to Apple....MORE
