Apple-backed Rockstar Consortium to Sell Patent Portfolio for $900 Million

Apple-backed Rockstar Consortium has agreed to sell more than 4,000 patents to San Francisco based RPX for $900 million.

Rockstar originally paid $4.5 billion for the patent portfolio in 2011. The company consists of Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry, Ericsson and Sony Corp who originally purchased 6,000 patents from Nortel Networks when it went bankrupt. The companies kept 4,000 patents in Rockstar's portfolio and distribute the remaining 2,000 among each other.

RPX confirmed that it will license the patents to a separate syndicate of 30 other technology companies including Google and Cisco.


“Peace is breaking out,” said John Amster, CEO of RPX. “I think people have started to realize that licensing, not litigation, is the best way to make use of patents, and this deal is a significant acknowledgment of that reality.”

Rockstar was originally created as a gateway for its owners to reach license agreements with other technology companies in the world, but its plans were rather unsuccessful. The deal will also put an end to several lawsuits that were filed by Rockstar against companies that make phones with Android OS -- including Samsung and LG.

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