The Digital Capture Portfolio includes over 700 patents, covering key aspects of image capture, processing, and transmission technologies that are important to the design and operation of digital cameras and multi-function devices, including camera-enabled smartphones and tablets, Kodak said.

The KISS portfolio includes over 400 patents that cover technologies including image analysis, manipulation and tagging, and network-based services, including image storage, access, and fulfillment. Kodak said it has generated more than $3 billion since 2001 from licensing its digital imaging portfolio to companies like Samsung, LG, Motorola, and Nokia. It also has patent infringement cases against Apple, Research In Motion, and HTC.

Kodak, which faced challenges in making the transition to digital technology, has since July been "exploring strategic alternatives" including the sale of its digital imaging patent portfolios.

The company, which at one point said its portfolio was evaluated at up to $2.6 billion by a company interested in licensing the patents, is following in the footsteps of other technology companies who have raised funds through sales of patents.

Bankrupt Nortel Networks raised $4.5 billion through the sale of patents and patent applications to a consortium consisting of Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, RIM and Sony. This auction used the stalking horse strategy, and illustrates the risk that a stalking horse bidder, having revealed important information to its competitors in the process, may still lose at the auction, Kodak said in its filing. Google made the stalking horse bid of $900 million in the Nortel auction.