Kodak goes out of instant’

Press, 10 January 1986, Page 6

Kodak goes out of instant’

NZPA-AP Rochester The photographic giant, Eastman Kodak Company, has lost a bid to block a court order that will force it to get out of the instant photography business from today.

The company planned to stop all production and marketing of instant film and cameras, said a Kodak spokesman, Mr Hank Kaska, yesterday.

The United States Circuit Court in Washington had denied Kodak’s request to allow the company to remain in the instant photography business while it appealed a decision in its nine-year patent battle with

the Polaroid Corporation, he said.

In October, Judge Rya Zobel, of the United States Federal Court, ruled that Kodak had infringed on seven United States patents owned by Polaroid, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She then issued an order barring Kodak from making or selling the instant products, effective from today.

Polaroid claimed in its suit, which was originally filed in April, 1976, that Kodak used its patented techniques and processes in manufacturing its instant camera and film. Kodak has said in court papers that the decision will cost hundreds of jobs, leave

SUS2OO million of equipment idle and severely and irreparably damage its reputation as a reliable source of cameras and film.

Stock analysts were not surprised by the decision and they generally agreed that it would not have a devastating impact on Kodak.

Although Kodak will leave the instant photography business its appeal of Judge Zobel’s decision will continue in Washington. The chairman of Kodak, Mr Colby Chandler, said that if today’s injunction goes into effect, Kodak’s instant photography business will be ended.