In the wake of the successful Nortel patent auction, four IP-rich companies have stepped forward in an attempt to exploit their IP

Bloomberg reported Kodak is prepping their 1,100 digital imaging patents for sale, and investors seem to think it’s a good idea.  One analyst pegged the value as approaching $3B.

Interdigital is for sale. Their claim?  “Our inventions in wireless modem design, air interface technology, and end-to-end system architecture are the foundation of the wireless networks and devices used by billions of mobile users around the world today. ”  ReadWriteWeb reported Ocean Tomo rated the Interdigital 3G and 4G wireless patents and found them more significant to communications platforms than Nortel’s.

Research in Motion is rapidly losing market share to Android and Apple, but a Sterne Agee & Leach analyst feels its patents may be worth as much as $5B (probably calculated on a cost basis, as that matches what RIM reports they have spent on acquisition and development), and there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of buyers who would benefit.

Finally, last week HP said they have decided to exit the TouchPad and webOS phone businesses, but according to Richard Kerris, SVP, HP expects to do further innovating with the webOS software (read “licensing”).