With Eastman Kodak Co. having last month filed a formal complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC), accusing Apple and Research In Motion (RIM) of infringing on Kodak’s patents pertaining its digital imaging technology, the Commission said on Wednesday that it will investigate the patent infringement charges against the two companies.

The Rochester, New York-based Kodak – which won a similar patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung on December 17 - had filed the lawsuits against Apple and RIM last month in the US District Court for the Western District of New York.

In its filing, Kodak has alleged that even the iPhone and BlackBerries dating back to 2001 include the patented technology, which essentially enables the devices to preview images and process them at different resolutions.

Kodak has also mentioned in its filing that the digital imaging technology is currently being licensed to nearly 30 companies – all of whom pay royalties to Kodak - including Nokia, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung.

Kodak, which has a track record of being ‘flexible’ while resolving patent infringement issues, and is apparently open to settlement talks with Apple and RIM, has presently urged the ITC to ban the two companies from continuing to import devices that feature Kodak’s patented digital camera technology.