(Reuters) - Canadian patent licensing company Wi-Lan Inc said a U.S. judge had allowed its patent suit to proceed against eight companies, including units of Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, HTC Corp and Sony Corp.

The U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas rejected all arguments made in support of the defendants' motion for a partial summary judgment, Wi-Lan said in a statement.

In a partial summary judgment, a party to a suit asks the court to dismiss a case without a full trial.

Wi-Lan said the judge in his opinion had adopted interpretations it believed were favorable to its lawsuit.

"This ... could lead to early settlements in advance of the trial scheduled for April 8, 2013," Canaccord Genuity analyst Eyal Ofir said in a note to clients.

The potential value of settlements in this case could be in the range of $150-$200 million over a five- to six-year licensing term, Ofir said.

Shares of Ottawa-based Wi-Lan, which has a market value of about C$580 million ($570.7 million), were up 3.6 percent at C$4.87 in afternoon trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday.

($1 = 1.0164 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bangalore; Editing by Ted Kerr and Maju Samuel)