Kodak, Agfa, Heidelberg Team up to Fight Patent Trolls

Kodak, Agfa and Heidelberg have joined together to file petitions with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) in an effort to combat patent licensing demands made on their customers by CTP Innovations. The petitions, through an established process with the PTO known as Inter Partes Review, seek to invalidate U.S. patents 6,738,155 and 6,611,349, which were acquired by CTP Innovations and are being asserted against the customers in patent infringement lawsuits brought by CTP Innovations, a non-practicing entity.

This is part of a continuing initiative by this coalition of supplier companies to demonstrate their commitment to their customers.

In a joint statement, the companies said: "We fully support the proper use of the patent system to support legitimate intellectual property rights. However, we feel strongly that the infringement claims brought by CTP Innovations are without merit and the licensing demands are unsubstantiated. We feel it is important to take this action to support our customers from these frivolous claims."

The coalition continues to monitor CTP Innovations' litigation and licensing activities and will update their respective customers with any further developments regarding the PTO review.

For more background on patent infringement cases that have been filed against printers, read "Patent Trolls Still Targeting Printers" from the March issue of Printing Impressions magazine.