Kodak Invented the Technology That Later Forced Them Into Bankruptcy
US Patent number 4,131,919. Though it may not go down in history, it’s sure to be one of the most important inventions in our modern age.
In 1975, Kodak employee Steven Sasson built the world’s first functional digital camera using then-new but now-ubiquitous CCD chips. Though it would take a few decades for the technology to hit the mainstream, Kodak was responsible for inventing the same technology that would later force it to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in January 2012.
Although it also brought the world’s first single lens reflex digital camera to market in the early 90s, Kodak was slow to shift its business from film-based to to the digital-based products (the company once made almost all of its income from selling film).
2007 was the last year that the imaging pioneer turned a profit, and today Kodak relies on suing others for allegedly infringing its patents (ones that it often failed to capitalize upon), and since declaring bankruptcy has resorted to auctioning those patents off to the highest bidder.
Related posts:
- Color Photography Technology Has Existed For About 150 Years
- Christopher Columbus Was a Slave Trader
- The World Trade Center Towers Originally Lacked Lightswitches
- The First Openly Gay Elected Official in the US Was Shot to Death
- Coca-Cola’s Secret Ingredient Used to be Cocaine
Ye Olde RSS Feed.
The deal, which would require court approval, would require Kodak to receive at least $500M for the sale of its patents.