Paul Luckern, an administrative law judge at the ITC, issued his initial determination yesterday, almost 18 months after Qualcomm filed a complaint with the ITC that accused Nokia of importing patent-infringing mobile telephone handsets into the US.

In his determination, Luckern concluded that none of the accused products infringe the asserted claims of Qualcomm’s ‘473, ‘408 or ‘220 patents, which relate to power control technologies.

In a further blow to Qualcomm, he also determined that patent ‘473 was invalid. As a result of his findings, he said that there had been no breach of Section 337of the Tariff Act, which gives the ITC the power to ban the import into the US of products that infringe IP rights.

A final ruling by the ITC is due to be issued by April 14 next year. Qualcomm has already announced it intends to petition the Commission for review of the initial determination.

Nokia said it was happy with the initial determination. “We are pleased with Judge Luckern’s decision and believe it is consistent with and supported by the facts,” said Rick Simonson, Nokia’s chief financial officer. “This decision confirms our belief that Qualcomm does not have relevant GSM patents.”

Qualcomm has filed 11 patent infringement lawsuits against Nokia over the past two years, including in the US, China and Europe.

In October, the European Commission opened formal antitrust proceedings against Qualcomm to investigate whether its conduct amounts to an abuse of a dominant position. Two years ago, Ericsson, Nokia, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, NEC and Panasonic complained to the Commission that Qualcomm’s licensing terms and conditions are not fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory.

Managing IP’s November issue includes a review, with illustrations, of litigation over 3G telecoms patents, including the cases between Nokia and Qualcomm.