The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has voted to launch an investigation into whether Apple Inc.'s iPhone, iPad and other products infringe four S3 Graphics Co. patents covering image processing technology. The investigation, announced Friday, is in response to a complaint filed May 28 by S3. The complaint specifically targets the iPhone, the iPad, the iPod touch, the MacBook, and associated software, and accuses Apple of violating Section 337 of the Tariff Act. The patents describe technology that enables “coding of image attributes into data files that can be more efficiently stored and later displayed,” according to the complaint, which is often used to encode very large color image files, like those in video games. S3G is represented by Finnegan.