Apple and Google are both reportedly interested in Kodak's digital patents, but the amount each one is willing to pay is far below what the cash strapped company thinks they could be worth. By Kodak's estimation, the patents up for auction could bring in as much as $2.6 billion, which would go a long way towards settling the company's financial woes and bankruptcy proceedings. Early bids, however, haven't even topped $250 million.

At a time when Apple has been successful in suing competing products right off of store shelves for allegedly copying the look and feel of the iPhone, Amazon fully understands what's at stake as it looks to enter the smartphone market. Oh, haven't you heard? Amazon is indeed looking to make a run at the iPhone with a mobile phone of its own, just as soon as it collects enough patents to fend off Apple's aggressive legal strategy.

AOL today entered into a definitive agreement to sell more than 800 patents outright to Microsoft and grant an additional 300 non-exclusive patents and patent applications to the Redmond software giant for $1.056 billion. A "significant" portion of the money raised will go to shareholders, AOL announced.

Would you have guessed that it would be Microsoft who stands up and yells, "Enough already!," in response to all the silly patent squabbles, many of which only end up hurting the consumer? Believe it or not, that's what the Redmond software giant did, in a roundabout sort of way. Microsoft is taking a public stand in support for industry standards and vowed it would not seek injunctions against any firm that runs afoul of so-called "standard essential" patents, all for the greater good of mankind.