Apple is planning to swing back at Kodak with yet another patent infringement lawsuit in the US, but first it wants permission from New York's Bankruptcy Court. The company showed its hand in a filing with the court this week, as noted by Bloomberg, saying that it planned to file lawsuits in US District Court and with the International Trade Commission over patents that Kodak has allegedly violated.

Apple isn't necessarily required to obtain bankruptcy's court's approval in order to file the new lawsuits against Kodak, but apparently did so out of "an abundance of caution," according to the company's filing. Kodak can then ask the court to put a hold on the case in district court until the ITC makes its own ruling on the case.

The request comes just over a month after Kodak accused Apple of infringing on Kodak's digital imaging patents in the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. The new suits that Apple is planning to file against Kodak appear to be a response to that accusation, as Apple believes it's the true owner of the digital imaging patents in question and Kodak is the one infringing. And those lawsuits were in addition to an already ongoing ITC investigation that Kodak initiated against Apple and RIM last year—Apple fired back with its own counterclaims, though the ITC's initial ruling implied that Apple and RIM may have something to worry about after all when it comes to infringing on Kodak's patents.

When we last wrote about Kodak suing Apple, we said it seemed obvious that Kodak was trying to prove its patents as it prepared to file for bankruptcy. Kodak has gone ahead and filed for bankruptcy, but is still working on selling its portfolio of roughly 1,100 patents—whoever ends up buying them will inherit the legal agreements that come with them, which is undoubtedly why Apple is continuing to push for court decisions in its favor.