I sit here this morning, coffee in hand, just back from an overnight drive from Rochester to my home in the New York area. The trip was done overnight and on short notice, in order to help a friend, a CPA, with some network issues in his office that were critical because this is tax time.

But you cannot drive to Rochester without seeing the influence of Eastman Kodak. Kodak’s current Chapter 11 bankruptcy is yet another thing making the Rochester area gray and dreary. The area is full of reminders of the great yellow father’s heyday. It was a long drive influenced by Lake effect snow. This gave me a lot of time to think.

In an earlier post, I talked about Kodak and its bankruptcy in terms of the new companies that they might spin off. But one of the things that I have been considering lately is Kodak’s immense store of patents. With over 1100 patents in digital photography alone, Kodak’s intellectual property will be a treasure trove for someone. When you think about it, those technologies are at use now more than they have ever been before. Every cell phone that is not a bubble card giveaway contains a camera.

Although Kodak bobbled the use of most of these patents, their sale as intellectual property could be one of the largest events to happen in technology in this decade.

Look for it.

JRR

Tech note: This post was dictated using the new Dragon Express for Mac, and is completely unedited. Wow.

Editor’s note: the only edit we made was when we hyperlinked Dragon Express for Mac (in case you’re interested), and we are equally wowed by how good it is.