Following a complaint filed by Kodak last month against Apple and Research in Motion (RIM) the U.S. International Trade Commission has announced that it will investigate the iPhone and Blackberry makers.
The investigation is based on a complaint filed by Eastman Kodak Company of Rochester, NY, on January 14, 2010. The complaint alleges violations of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 in the importation into the United States and sale of certain mobile telephones and wireless communication devices featuring digital cameras and components thereof that infringe a patent asserted by Kodak. The complainant requests that the USITC issue an exclusion order and cease and desist orders.
Kodak alleges that the iPhone and Blackberry use technologies that infringe patents and has asked the ITC to ban the imports of units in the United State.
The USITC will offer a "final determination in the investigation at the earliest practicable time."