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The giants of the digital camera market are at loggerheads over patents granted to Kodak between 1987 last year concerning the compression, colour-sensing and storage of digital stills and video. Sony maintains it 'has not violated any Kodak patent related to digital imaging and will fully defend any allegations'.

As the inventor of the digital camera, Kodak currently holds close to a thousand patents concerning the technology. But until recently, it has been happy to keep its intellectual property portfolio in the display cabinet.

However of late Kodak seems bent on investigating potential revenues from patents through licensing and partnering, according to analysts. It's recent decision to stop making film cameras for the European and North American markets may have prompted it to seek alternative income streams.

With IDC putting Sony in the number one position last year for US sales of digital cameras, Kodak will be keen to put pressure on its competitors to license its technologies as it successfully did with Sanyo in 2001.