Kodak Sues Samsung Over Patents

It may be too late, but Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) has begun suits against tech companies that it claims violate some of its digital patents. The latest is against the second largest maker of handsets in the world–Samsung, which trails leader Nokia (NYSE: NOK) by a very small margin.

The patent suit deal with Samsung’s tablet PC products, which have posted some degree of success against the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.

Among the list of claims are five patents:

— U.S. Patent No. 6,292,218 — “Electronic Camera For Initiating Capture of Still Images While Previewing Motion Images”

— U.S. Patent No. 7,210,161 — “Automatically Transmitting Images from an Electronic Camera to a Service Provider Using a Network Configuration File”

— U.S. Patent No. 7,742,084 — “Network Configuration File for Automatically Transmitting Images from an Electronic Still Camera”

— U.S. Patent No. 7,453,605 — “Capturing Digital Images to be Transferred to an E-Mail Address”

— U.S. Patent No. 7,936,391 — “Digital Camera with Communications Interface for Selectively Transmitting Images over a Cellular Phone Network and a Wireless LAN Network to a Destination”

Many investors believe that Kodak is still a candidate for Chapter 11. It has not been able to license or sell its large patent portfolio, and its core businesses lose money. Kodak’s shares trade at $.56 and the company is a candidate for delisting.