Eastman Kodak said today that they have filed lawsuits against Apple and Research in Motion for infringements on their digital imaging patents, according to ZDNet.

Kodak launched the suits on a couple fronts.  Kodak made a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission and argued that Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry tread on Kodak's technology for previewing images.

In addition, Kodak also filed two lawsuits against Apple in a U.S. District Court and claimed that Apple had infringed on patents that were in regard to digital cameras and computer processes.

In their statement, Kodak said:

"In the case of Apple and RIM, we've had discussions for years with both companies in an attempt to resolve this amicably, and we have not been able to reach a satisfactory agreement.  In light of that, we are taking this action to ensure that we protect the interests of our shareholders and the existing licensees of our technology."

Kodak was quick to add that LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson were all paying royalties to the company for its intellectual property.

In one of the suits against Apple, Kodak stated that Apple is infringing on two patents covering image preview and the processing of images of different resolutions.  The second suit concentrates on technology that lets one application ask another program for assistance in finishing a computing task.  The other suit is based on the same technology that Kodak had sued Sun Microsystems over in 2004.  In that case, a jury ruled in favor of Kodak and Sun ended up licensing the technology.