The U.S. International Trade Commission has agreed to investigate patent infringement claims Apple filed against Motorola.

"The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) has voted to institute an investigation of certain mobile devices and related software," the ITC said in a statement. "The products at issue in this investigation are mobile devices, such as smartphones, and their operating systems, user interfaces, and other application software."

The investigation stems from a lawsuit filed by Apple on October 29 that claims Motorola's multi-touch smartphones use Apple-owned intellectual property. Apple filed two separate suits against Motorola that touch on six different patents and smartphones like the Droid, Droid 2, Droid X, Cliq, Cliq XT, BakFlip Devour A555, Devour i1, and Charm.

Court documents said Apple has a problem with "smartphones and associated software, including operating systems, user interfaces, and other application software designed for use on, and loaded onto such devices."

Apple "requests that the USITC issue an exclusion order and a cease and desist order," according to the ITC.

Going forward, the ITC chief administrative law judge will assign the case to one of the organization's six judges, who will schedule and hold an evidentiary hearing and later make a determination.

The ITC is also investigating Motorola's patent claims against Apple. In early October, Motorola Mobility sued Apple in three separate complaints; in district courts in Illinois and Florida and a separate complaint filed with the ITC. The suits cover 18 different patents, and they allege that Apple's iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and certain Mac computers infringe them.

Microsoft has also sued Motorola, arguing that its royalty rates for both wireless networking and video technologies exceed agreed-upon limits. A separate Microsoft suit also addresses patent infringement relating to Motorola's Android-based smartphones.