US court presses pause on Nokia-Apple lawsuits

A Delaware court has put Apple's patent lawsuit against Nokia and Nokia's patent lawsuit against Apple on hold, pending decisions by the US International Trade Commission on the matter.

Apple sued Nokia in the court in December 2009 over the alleged violation of 13 iPhone-related patents. The move was effectively a countersuit, as Nokia sued Apple over 10 patents a couple of months earlier.

Apple and Nokia also went to the ITC in attempts to stop the importation into the US of each others' products. According to AP, It is the resolution of these particular cases that the Delaware court wants to see, before it allows the lawsuits to proceed.

There has been a recent frenzy of patent litigation involving Apple. Apart from its Nokia-Apple investigations, the ITC is also investigating Apple over complaints by Eastman Kodak, and investigating HTC after Apple claimed multiple patent infringements by the Android phone manufacturer.