Apple v. Nokia: USITC comes out on Nokia's side in pre-trial hearing

It'll be a good, long while before the various spats between Nokia and Apple over intellectual property ever get fully resolved -- but Espoo's got an early ally in the form of the US International Trade Commission. The USITC has said early in the patent trial -- in which Apple is the plaintiff -- that "the evidence will not establish a violation" on Nokia's part, elaborating that portions of some patents were invalid and others simply weren't infringed at all. The judge in the case isn't expected to lay down the law (quite literally) until next February -- and he isn't obligated to take the USITC's side on the matter -- but we're sure the boys and girls over in Finland are high-fiving a bit on the news.

Update: Reader Florian Mueller wrote us to point out that the USITC comments only affect four of the many patents Apple is wielding against Nokia (alongside HTC and Motorola) in a variety of cases -- so yeah, this is far from over.