IPCS, Inc.—an affiliate of Sprint-Nextel that succeeded in blocking Nextel iDEN network operations in certain Midwestern territories—won another key legal victory, as a circuit court in Cook County, Illinois turned down Sprint-Nextel’s motion for dismissal of an amended iPCS lawsuit that seeks to bar Sprint from receiving benefits accruing from the Clearwire WiMax venture. Schaumburg, Illinois-based iPCS offers wireless communications services under the Sprint name in Illinois and in six other states. Claiming that Sprint’s 2005 merger with Nextel violated exclusivity provisions contained in the iPCS-Nextel affiliation agreement, iPCS convinced the Cook County Circuit Court in 2006 to prohibit Sprint from owning, operating, or managing Nextel iDEN network facilities in territories served by iPCS. That decision was upheld on appeal last year and is slated to take effect next January. After filing a similar complaint against the Sprint-Clearwire venture, iPCS agreed to withdraw its request for injunctive relief upon receiving assurances from Sprint and Clearwire that they had no plans to operate in territories served by iPCS prior to July 1, 2009. (Sprint’s partnership with Clearwire was approved by the FCC last November.) Charging, however, that Sprint was “diverting advanced technologies” to Clearwire partners and competitors that should have been offered to iPCS in accordance with the terms of the iPCS affiliation agreement with Sprint, iPCS asked the court in January to prohibit Sprint from receiving benefits from the Clearwire venture unless those benefits were also extended to iPCS. Last Thursday, Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Pantle rejected Sprint’s motion for dismissal of the amended iPCS complaint, ruling that iPCS had presented enough evidence for its case to proceed. Declaring that “technological advances are central to any wireless business,” iPCS CEO Timothy Yager said, “we are confident that after the evidence is presented . . . the court will uphold the business deal we reached with Sprint over ten years ago.”