<p>In this 2004 photo, Steve Sasson holds the world's first digital camera, which he invented in 1975 as a young researcher at Eastman Kodak Co.(Photo: Staff file photo)Story HighlightsThe article takes a critical look at how Kodak sold part of its intellectual property portfolio.Without the sale, author says, "Kodak very likely would have been split up or simply shut down."Article: "Kodak's fire sale shifted decades of intellectual capital, at pennies on the dollar."</p><p>Because I cover technology, I come in contact with a lot of people who are smarter than I am. Physicists and chemistry Ph.Ds and electrical engineers, all very passionate about their work and patient enough to explain their innovations in a way that even I can understand.</p><p>Many of those folks are former Eastman Kodak Co. researchers, and they lit up my inbox last weekend, alerting me to an article in Spectrum, the journal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and arguably the world's leading technology publication.</p><p>RocDocs: Patents issued to local inventors</p><p><a href="http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/money/columnist/lahman/2014/02/20/sean-lahman-kodak-patent-fire-sale/5621211/">Keep reading...</a></p>