Kodak and Sony have given each other a hug and agreed to end their fight over which of them owns key digital camera intellectual property. They now both do, courtesy of a cross-licensing agreement the two have drawn up.

Kodak kicked of the spat with a lawsuit alleging patent infringement filed in March 2004. A month later, Sony made tit-for-tat allegations against Kodak, and the two companies' lawyers have been emailing each other ever since. Both firms alleged the other had violated ten of its patents.

Interestingly, the settlement extends to Sony's mobile phone joint-venture, Sony Ericsson, which now has access to the Kodak patents. Neither Sony nor Kodak said how much the deal had cost them, though Sony said it will have no impact on the year's financial results. ®