Kodak has lost an initial ruling in its patent infringement suit against Research In Motion (RIM) and Apple.

A judge with the International Trade Commission (ITC) said in an initial determination that RIM’s BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone devices did not infringe on Kodak’s patented image previewing technology. The ITC’s final decision on the lawsuit is expected by May 23.

Laura Quatela, Kodak’s intellectual property chief, said in a statement that the company remained confident the ITC would rule in its favor, citing previous wins against LG and Samsung over the patent.

“We fully expect the ITC Commission will ultimately rule that the patent claim at issue is valid and infringed by Apple and RIM,” Quatela said. “We remain committed to protecting our intellectual property and to defending ourselves against those who would make erroneous claims to it.”

Kodak filed its initial ITC complaint against Apple and RIM in January 2010, claiming that the companies’ smartphones violated a key Kodak patent covering technology related to a method for previewing images. Kodak is also suing Apple and RIM over the same issue in Texas and New York courts.

Kodak has more than 1,000 patents on digital imaging and has licensed them to a number of technology companies, including LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.