Deja vu: Fujifilm files patent claim against Kodak
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Fujifilm Corp. has launched a legal action against Eastman Kodak Co. and claims its Sonora processless plates infringe on Fujifilm’s patents.
The patent infringement lawsuit was lodged against Eastman Kodak in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey on March 20.
Fujifilm has asserted four patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 10,427,443, 10,525,696, 10,875,346, and 11,294,279) on various aspects of processless lithographic printing plate technologies, including method and apparatus claims. The Japanese company is seeking remedies including damages and injunctive relief related to Kodak’s “unauthorized commercial manufacture, use, offer to sell, or sale within the United States, and/or importation of its processless lithographic printing plate products that infringe the four asserted patents”.
This includes products sold under the product name Sonora X and the brand umbrella name Sonora Xtra.
A Kodak spokesperson told Printweek: “Kodak believes the claims are without merit and we plan to defend the claims vigorously.”
Fujifilm also stated, that in October and December 2023, Fujifilm Corp. had sued Kodak’s European subsidiaries, Kodak GmbH, Kodak Graphic Communications GmbH, and Kodak Holding GmbH, for infringement of the related European counterparts of the US patents-in-suit “in the Unified Patent Court and in Germany”.
PrintWeek reported, in a separate maneuver, last year Eastman Kodak Co. petitioned the US Department of Commerce and the US International Trade Commission, and called for tariffs to be imposed on Chinese and Japanese plate manufacturers import products into the US, citing “unfairly low prices that significantly undercut” its domestic market.