While a struggling Eastman Kodak Co. takes Apple and other businesses to court over smartphone photo-sharing patents, its spin-off health division says it beefed up its intellectual property portfolio significantly in 2011.
Carestream Health Inc., Kodak's health division that was sold to a Canadian private investment firm in 2007, said it was awarded 47 patents in medical imaging and health IT products last year.
The Rochester, N.Y.-based company said the patents include image processing techniques, RIS and PACS enhancements, dental imaging sensor tech and new sensor and dye improvements for molecular imaging.
"These patents illustrate our commitment-and success-in developing and delivering technologically advanced capabilities and new products that will help our customers enhance results in patient care, health care IT and research environments," James R. Milch, director of the Research and Innovation Laboratories at Carestream, said in a statement.
A local upstate New York newspaper, Democrat and Chronicle, first mentioned some of Carestream's patent gains earlier this month in an article about last year's patent haul, noting that it takes years between the time a patent application is filed and the patent is actually granted.
Interestingly, 2011 was a record year for patents. According to a Jan. 11 CNET article, almost 225,000 utility patents (the most common kind) were granted last year, a 2 percent bump over 2010's historic numbers.
