Kodak Cameras Back from the Dead Thanks to Licensing Deal
After filing for bankruptcy and selling many of its digital photography patents, Kodak is now licensing its name to a 3rd-party imaging company.
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We couldn't think of a good joke about the zombie apocalypse, but Kodak cameras are back, sort of, thanks to a licensing deal. After declaring bankruptcy last January, Kodak has stayed busy by unloading its intellectual properties, most notably selling a chunk of its digital photography patents to patent collectives that represent Apple, Microsoft, and other tech juggernauts.
Now, the Kodak name is up for sale, licensed out to a firm called JK Imaging, Ltd. The last few generations of Kodak cameras ranged from mediocre to awful, leaving a once-proud company's reputation in tatters as they staggered into the digital age. But it is still a recognizable name, and an American one (even if the products are assembled overseas).
No details have surfaced about what kinds of cameras we can expect to see from this deal. Generic point-and-shoots would be a massive waste of time and money, so we have a hunch that like another left-for-dead legacy brand, we might see a Kodak-branded system camera coming down the pipeline.
[via 1001 Noisy Cameras, Kodak