Kodak's Stock Surges 44% After it Announces an ICO

Kodak on Thursday announced a licensing partnership with WENN Digital to launch the KODAKOne image rights management platform that will include KODAKCoin, a "photo-centric cryptocurrency to empower photographers and agencies to take greater control in image rights management."

And because this is a corporate announcement about an ICO, Kodak's stock immediately surged 44%, as TechCrunch reports.

Here's Kodak's description of its new platform:

Utilizing blockchain technology, the KODAKOne platform will create an encrypted, digital ledger of rights ownership for photographers to register both new and archive work that they can then license within the platform. With KODAKCoin, participating photographers are invited to take part in a new economy for photography, receive payment for licensing their work immediately upon sale, and for both professional and amateur photographers, sell their work confidently on a secure blockchain platform. KODAKOne platform provides continual web crawling in order to monitor and protect the IP of the images registered in the KODAKOne system. Where unlicensed usage of images is detected, the KODAKOne platform can efficiently manage the post-licensing process in order to reward photographers

“For many in the tech industry, ‘blockchain’ and ‘cryptocurrency’ are hot buzzwords, but for photographers who’ve long struggled to assert control over their work and how it’s used, these buzzwords are the keys to solving what felt like an unsolvable problem,” Kodak CEO Jeff Clarke said in a statement. “Kodak has always sought to democratize photography and make licensing fair to artists. These technologies give the photography community an innovative and easy way to do just that.”

As demonstrated by Kodak's announcement - and its subsequent stock surge - there's really nothing that gets the markets moving quite like hot buzzwords.

Photo: Kodak