AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Philips Electronics said on Tuesday it had filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) against 19 blank CD makers and trading firms to prevent the import of unlicensed discs.

Philips, Europe's biggest consumer electronics firm, accuses the companies of infringing its patents covering recordable (CD-R) and rewritable compact disc (CD-RW) technologies by selling the discs in the U.S. without a license.

"Philips asked the ITC to issue an order excluding importation of all unlicensed discs into the United States so that the more than 70 manufacturers currently licensed by Philips to make CD-R's and CD-RW's are not at a competitive disadvantage," the firm said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for Philips said millions of unlicensed discs are imported into the U.S. every year.

Philips has itself been accused by some music labels and Hollywood studios of giving users the tools to pirate copyright materials, such as music and movies.

The firm had manufactured one of the world's first DVD recorders and has fought the music industry over changes made to the compact disc (CD) format, which it developed jointly with Sony, to prevent piracy.

"The company emphasizes that it places great importance on protecting its innovations through intellectual property rights," Philips said.

The companies accused of violating Philips's patents are mostly Taiwan-based manufacturers, including Digital Storage Technology, Gigastore Corporation and KingPro Mediatek.

Among the U.S. distributors named in the complaint are a leading computer equipment distributor, TigerDirect, as well as DiscsDirect.Com and NewEgg.Com.