Although it seems hard to believe considering the recent lawsuit between Apple and Samsung, it seems that both companies and HTC + Google could join forces to buy part of the patents in Kodak's portfolio. Kodak is a bankrupt company at the moment, it needs money to recover and selling its patents could be the fastest way to do this. The collaboration is thought in the idea of forcing Kodak to sell its patents at a much lower price than the one requested, all these 4 companies being initially separately interested in the intellectual property.
The bidding group brings together a raft of strange bedfellows. It includes Apple Inc. and Google Inc., fierce competitors in the global smartphone market. It also includes Intellectual Ventures Management LLC, which buys up patents to seek licensing revenue and increasingly sue other companies for infringement, and RPX Corp., which buys patents to keep them from being used against its members in suits. […]
People familiar with the matter said the consortium bidding on Kodak's patents also includes Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Inc. and HTC Corp., all companies building smartphones based on Google software.
Kodak initially requested 2.2 - 2.6 billion dollars for these patents, but the consortium of the 4 companies is offering almost a quarter of that amount, and the chances of them getting what they want seem small. Probably Kodak will be convinced to sell everything for 1 billion dollars and if it does so then Apple, Google, Samsung and HTC will have to use those patents together, being prevented from suing each other based on them.
