Apple-Nokia Federal Patent Case Put on Hold Amid ITC Investigation

A federal judge in Delaware ordered on Wednesday that a pending case between Apple and Nokia over allegations of patent infringement to be put on hold while their respective competing cases reach a resolution with the U.S. International Trade Commission [ITC].

In case you don’t know about this legal mess between Apple and Nokia, let me explain it to you in a nutshell. Back in October 2009, Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple with the U.S. District Court in Delaware over patent infringement. A couple of months later in December, Apple counter-sued Nokia at the U.S. District Court in Delaware over patent infringements as well. Then at the end of December, we learned that Nokia took things a bit further, and filed a complaint with the ITC. A few days later in January 4, Nokia once again filed another lawsuit against Apple with the ITC. This time looking to ban the import of all infringing Apple products into Finland. Lastly, Apple filed a complaint of their own with ITC, looking to ban all imports of Nokia products into the U.S.

Now, the federal court in Delaware won’t proceed until the complaints from both companies with the ITC get resolved, which no one knows how long it could take. It’s important to bear in mind that many of the patent infringements that Apple originally attributed to Nokia, have also been used in the recent lawsuit against HTC. We’re not sure how much that could affect Apple and the ITC’s decision.

We’ll keep our eyes and ears open for new information regarding this legal mess.

[ AP via Engadget ]