The ITC ruling on Apple’s first complaint against HTC was scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 6. However, it’s been extended by eight days to Wednesday, Dec. 14, writes Florian Mueller of “Foss Patents” (http://macte.ch/4v2sv).

Why? “The ITC is struggling to cope with a huge caseload. It has recently postponed a number of decisions and hearings,” Mueller writes. “This delay cannot be reasonably interpreted to provide any indication as to what the outcome will be. However, the fact that the delay is relatively short (eight days) indicates that the ITC is very close to a decision and unlikely to postpone it again (though it could).”

Apple first filed its complaint against HTC in March 2010. An initial ruling in July 2011 found that HTC did violate two Apple patents.

— Dennis Sellers