November 22, 2024

Apple Bidding on Nortel's Patent Assets?

Posted December 10, 2010 at 5:07pm by iClarified · 8019 views
Apple is reportedly one of several big players bidding for Nortel's patent assets that are being sold in a rare intellectual-property portfolio sale following Nortel's bankruptcy, according to Reuters.

Sources expect the sale to draw wireless telecom newcomers Apple and Google, which want to build up patent war chests as they fight incumbents such as Nokia, which want to protect their patent positions, in the courts.

"There has been one round of bidding on those patents, this has been completed," said one source, who declined to be identified because the process is private. "And what Nortel has done is divide the patents up into different lots covering different kinds of technologies."

Nortel holds more than 4,000 patents which could be worth more than one billion dollars. The patents have reportedly be grouped into six "buckets" of related technologies. Final bids are due within several weeks.

Read More [via MacRumors]