The International Trade Commission has now reaffirmed an earlier ruling that neither Apple nor RIM violated a key Kodak patent related to digital image previews. According to a ruling  handed down late Friday , the patent isn’t valid, which could cost Kodak dearly as it prepares to sell its imaging and other patents as part of its bankruptcy restructuring . Kodak had originally sued both Apple and RIM in 2010 , claiming the companies’ smartphones violated a patent related to capturing a high-resolution image while previewing a lower resolution “motion” version on a preview screen. Kodak had successfully argued that Samsung and LG violated the same patent the year prior , resulting in multi-million dollar settlements from both companies. ITC’s chief administrative law judge Luckern ruled in favor of Apple and RIM in late 2011, though an ITC Commission review asked that the case be remanded for additional analysis. Luckern had since retired, so the case was passed to ALJ Pender, who ruled in May that certain Apple and RIM devices infringed the claims of Kodak’s patent, but that the claims themselves were invalid due to “obviousness.” Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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ITC: Kodak imaging patent is invalid, Apple and RIM off the hook