Polaroid Corporation a "juggernaut of innovation", in many respects Polaroid was the Apple of its time with a "leader in Edwin Land, a scientist who guided the company as the founding CEO for four decades". Polaroid’s initial market was in polarized sunglasses — spawned from Land’s self-guided research in light polarization. Land, having completed his freshman year at Harvard University, left to pursue this market, resulting in Polaroid's birth. Land later returned to Harvard to continue his research. Polaroid, owning patents to its polarizer technology, got its start by employing polarization in products that included 3-D movies and glare-reducing goggles for dogs.
Polaroid type 55 2008 announced it would cease production of all instant film, filing for bankruptcy protection a second time. In 2009 the business was sold, the new owners announcing instant film production would be licensed out to a smaller company. The chemicals needed to process Polaroid instant film had been stockpiled in case of this eventuality but the licensees announced their intention to redesign and manufacture film on a limited basis under the Polaroid brand that would be compatible with most Polaroid film cameras, using machinery left over from a liquidated factory in the Netherlands. In response, in November 2009, Polaroid announced