Impossible acquires Polaroid name, intellectual property

zanxion72 · May 15, 2017

Not a bad thing. Impossible the only maker (at least I am aware of) of instant film for polaroid cameras. If they are to make new instant film, this is more than welcome.

AgX · May 15, 2017

Agulliver said:
And if it were so easy to copy technical specifications...someone would have copied Tri-X in the 80s rather than film manufacturers coming up with their own equivalents...

But manufacturing secrets are likely lost within the industry, with all the changes. And what more radical change can there be as a liqidation, as with Polaroid?

EdSawyer · May 15, 2017

The Polaroid brand, had value in the past, but currently = complete crap, with no trace of the original brilliance behind it. Just rebranded garbage from China, etc. Amazing that anyone would even consider anything currently labelled polaroid as anything other than outright shite. It would be almost amusing/ironic if IP started branding their stuff polaroid, given how they have yet to even come close to equaling the original product, even with a decade of beta-testing under their belt. And at this point, their own IP brand probably has as much or more "value" (if you can call it that) than Polaroid as a brand.

AgX · May 15, 2017

EdSawyer said:
The Polaroid brand, had value in the past, but currently = complete crap, with no trace of the original brilliance behind it.

Its value is not (yet) depending on the crap quality of current products realized by knowledgable people as you, but on its iconic value as synonym for instant photography to ignorant people even from past the instant era.

bvy · May 15, 2017

Ask the average Joe what Polaroid means to them. They're not going to tell you about rebranded sunglasses.

keenmaster486 · May 15, 2017

bvy said:
Ask the average Joe what Polaroid means to them. They're not going to tell you about rebranded sunglasses.

This is what I was saying before. And if you show the average Joe, no matter what generation, an instant camera of any brand, they will instantly think "Polaroid!" and the vibe is always positive.

Some people will think it's a Polaroid camera no matter whether it's instant or not. To the younger generations "Polaroid" is quickly becoming synonymous with "analog" and "film", probably mostly due to the rise of Instax stuff. And they don't think of it in a bad way (although it sometimes annoys me when someone my age comments on my "Polaroid" camera and I look down in surprise at my Kodak Retina).

cmacd123 · May 15, 2017

Copyright, patents and trademarks are all separate topics. Trademarks last forever if they are regularly used in commerce. (which all the Junk sold under the poloroid name managed to keep the used in commerce part alive)

Bobedot · Sep 6, 2017

It may be helpful to point out that Polaroid (the brand and intellectual property) was bought by the ownership group (led by the Smolokowski family) that owns controlling interest in The Impossible Project, not by Impossible themselves. The family may choose to keep the two companies separate or they may combine them in some manner.
The Petapixel website has a good article on the subject: https://petapixel.com/2017/05/12/polaroid-acquired-impossible-projects-largest-shareholder/

bvy · Sep 6, 2017

Bobedot said:
It may be helpful to point out that Polaroid (the brand and intellectual property) was bought by the ownership group (led by the Smolokowski family) that owns controlling interest in The Impossible Project, not by Impossible themselves. The family may choose to keep the two companies separate or they may combine them in some manner.
The Petapixel website has a good article on the subject: https://petapixel.com/2017/05/12/polaroid-acquired-impossible-projects-largest-shareholder/

Related to this, there's news of a "big announcement" from Impossible on September 13.

Impossible acquires Polaroid name, intellectual property

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