Polaroid Wins Patent Suit Against Kodak
On this day in 1985, Polaroid won a huge victory in federal court. A judge ruled that Kodak had violated Polaroid's patents for instant photography. The decision ended a nine-year legal struggle between the two photography giants. The first instant camera went on sale at Jordan Marsh in downtown Boston in 1948; it was an immediate success. Edwin Land, the brilliant Harvard dropout who founded Polaroid in 1937, hired other young scientists to help develop the technology. They continued to improve the optics, chemistry, and design of the cameras. For nearly 50 years, Polaroid built and dominated a worldwide market for instant photography. But digital photography dealt the company a blow from which it could not recover. In 2001, it filed for bankruptcy.
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