Despite strong demand for its flagship One smartphone, HTC has had a bit of a rough 2013 so far that's included executive departures and a possible loss coming as part of its Q3 2013 results. Today things got just a little bit worse for the Taiwanese device maker, as Reuters notes that a U.S. International Trade Commission judge has issued a preliminary ruling that says that HTC infringed upon two patents owned by Nokia. The patents in question relate to data sent and received by mobile phones and tablets.

As part of its lawsuit, Nokia is seeking a U.S. import ban on a number of HTC products, including the Amaze 4G, Inspire 4G, Radar 4G, Rezound, and Sensation 4G phones as well as the Flyer and Jetstream tablets. Because today's decision is a preliminary one, the full ITC panel will need to make a final decision on the case, which is expected to happen on Jan. 23, 2014. Still, the judge's ruling isn't exactly great news for HTC, adding one more thing to the list of problems that the company must deal with in 2013. Neither HTC nor Nokia have commented on today's decision yet, but stay tuned and I'll update you if one of them has something to say.

Via Reuters