Kodak Stock Leaps on Talk of Big Patent Payout

Shares of Eastman Kodak (NYSE:EK) climbed north of 11% Friday morning as shareholders drool over the possibility the company could add more than $1 billion in revenue if it wins a key patent dispute.

Antonio Perez, Eastman Kodak’s CEO, floated the $1 billion figure in an interview with Bloomberg News, saying his company “deserves to win” its battle against Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM).

The dispute is about whether or not Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry violated a patent held by Kodak on an image-preview feature in camera phones.

The U.S. International Trade Commission is expected to announce its decision Friday evening on whether or not to review a judge’s ruling against Kodak that said the companies did not violate the patent, the news agency reported.

“This is a lot of money, big money,” Perez told Bloomberg.

An additional $1 billion in revenue would certainly be considered a lot of money for Eastman Kodak, which has a market cap of just $840 million and brought in $7.2 billion in sales last year.

In his interview with Bloomberg, Perez compared it to the $550 million and $414 million Kodak received after favorable rulings against electronics companies Samsung and LG, respectively.

Inspired by the Perez comments, Wall Street snapped up shares of beaten-down Eastman Kodak, bidding the stock 9.9% higher to $3.44 Friday morning. However, even with those gains, the stock has plummeted just over 40% so far this year and nearly 50% from a year ago.