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US District Court Judge James Spencer declined to issue an immediate injunction that could have disrupted millions of BlackBerry users' service.

Although the judge decided not to issue that injunction today, he left open the possibility of an injunction later in the trial, FoxNews reported.

The report cited the judge's observation that RIM had infringed on NTP's patents. That infringement will cause Spencer to revisit the issue and make a decision on the injunction soon.

The patent case and the infringement case have run parallel to each other. NTP has suffered a string of defeats at the hands of the US Patent Office.

Five patents held by NTP have been rejected by the Patent Office one by one. This week, the fifth patent failed to pass scrutiny. NTP can appeal those decisions.

Previously, Spencer has stated that the patent findings would not impact his decision in today's infringement hearing. That had led to great concern he would issue the injunction from the bench; his tentative pause in this ongoing case has not allayed those concerns.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.