Nokia, the world’s largest cellphone maker, has lost a legal battle to avoid defending itself at the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). The lawsuit was lodged against a patent-infringement lawsuit by InterDigital.

InterDigital, of King of Prussia, Pa., has received more than $1.5 billion from its wireless patents and has issued licenses for technology used in Apple’s iPhone and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry devices. But the company has gone to court to sign up the biggest cellphone makers by sales, such as Nokia and Samsung Electronics, which agreed to pay InterDigital $400 million on the eve of a November decision by the ITC.

InterDigital developed a variety of patents basic to making cellphone calls in the late 1980s, when it attempted to build a business offering telephony in rural areas. The company estimates that it currently licenses 50% of high-speed broadband or 3G phones, a number that would rise to 80% if it succeeds in signing up Nokia. The final decision: a US judge in the Southern District of New York denied Nokia’s request to force InterDigital to arbitrate its dispute, rather than proceeding against Nokia at the ITC. Nokia sticks to claiming that the technologies were covered in earlier contracts stipulated arbitration to resolve conflicts. The ruling will be interesting given Samsung has a similar case due in May.

[via Wall Street Journal]