Eastman Kodak announced on Wednesday that a group of leading tech firms has teamed together to acquire 1,100 digital imaging and processing patents from the company for $525 million. “Once a thriving camera and photo company, Kodak filed for Chapter 11 in early 2012, hoping to restructure,” reports Wired. “Intellectual property aggregators Intellectual Ventures and RPX organized a consortium of 12 tech companies — Adobe, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Fujifilm, Google, HTC, Huawei, Microsoft, RIM, Samsung and Shutterfly — to make the purchase.”

Despite the deal’s low price, the portfolio is reported to be worth $2.5 billion. “Partially, that’s because Kodak isn’t in the position to negotiate,” explains the article. “But it’s also because Kodak extensively licensed these patents to other companies.”

“That makes the portfolio far less valuable, because there’s very little exclusivity when a patent has already been licensed to someone else,” says Harvard Business School professor and former Kodak VP Willy Shih. It is not yet clear who will own the patents, although it is likely that Intellectual Ventures and RPX will license them — and the companies who joined the consortium did so to prevent future lawsuits.

“Going forward, neither firms will sue the companies that bought in, like Apple and Google, but IV or RPX could go after other companies they feel are infringing on these patents,” suggests Santa Clara University law professor Brian Love.

According to Wired, the deal will especially benefit companies that Kodak has battled over patent infringement. “Existing lawsuits between Kodak and Apple, RIM, Fujifilm, HTC, Samsung and Shutterfly, are resolved under the deal,” explains the article.