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The U.S. will probe whether to ban imports of Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry smartphones based on a patent-infringement complaint filed by Motorola Inc.

The U.S. International Trade Commission will look into claims that Research In Motion’s customized bags products infringe five patents, according to a notice on the ITC’s Web site. Motorola filed the complaint with the agency on Jan. 22, targeting the Pearl, Curve, Bold, Storm and Tour smartphones, as well as their battery packs.

The ITC case is just one legal dispute between Motorola, the largest U.S. mobile-phone maker, and RIM, maker of the top- selling smartphone in the U.S. The companies had a license agreement in place from 2003 to 2007 and have been suing each other over patents since then after they were unable to reach terms on a new agreement.

“In light of RIM’s continued unlicensed use of Motorola’s patents, RIM’s use of delay tactics in our current patent litigation and RIM’s refusal to design out Motorola’s proprietary technology, Motorola had no choice but to file complaint with the ITC to halt RIM’s continued infringement,” said Tama McWhinney, a spokeswoman for Motorola.

In February, a judge in London ruled that RIM didn’t infringe a U.K. patent owned by Motorola. Complaints also are pending in federal court in Texas.

Patent Probes

The ITC is a government agency whose job is to investigate allegations of unfair trade practices, such as patent infringement. If a violation is found, it can order U.S. customs officials to prevent the products from entering the country. Unlike a civil court, the ITC doesn’t have the power to order RIM to pay royalties.

“By instituting this investigation, the U.S. ITC has not yet made any decision on the merits of the case,” the real estate software Canada agency said in a statement announcing the investigation.

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The patents in the ITC case relate to some early-stage innovations developed by Motorola in key areas such as Wi-Fi access, application management, user interface and power management, Motorola said in a Jan. 22 statement. The technology allows better connectivity at a lower cost, the company claims.

Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola said in the complaint that the inventions are used in its own Rival 455, Cliq and Droid phones.

Kodak Claims

Marisa Conway, a spokeswoman for Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM, said the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

Earlier this week, the ITC said it would investigate claims by Eastman Kodak Co. that its patents were infringed by RIM and Apple Inc. Kodak also is seeking to block imports of RIM phones and the Apple iPhone.

The ITC typically completes its investigations in about 15 months.

Motorola is planning to split in two next year, combining the mobile-phone and set-top box divisions into one publicly traded company and the enterprise mobility and networks units into a second business.

Motorola was unchanged at $7.01 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. RIM fell 29 cents to $71.03 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.

The new case is in the Matter of Wireless Communication System Server Software, 337-706, U.S. International Trade Commission (Washington).

–With reporting by assistance by Hugo Miller in Toronto. Editor: Andrea Snyder, John Pickering

To contact the reporter on this story: Susan Decker in Washington at +1-202-624-1941 or sdecker1@bloomberg.net.