• MOST READ

• LATEST NEWS

Just escaping the clutches of our issue on Friday was the news that bankrupt Nortel's patents were sold to a consortium, which seemed to include many of the big names in cellular technology, who united to ensure that patents didn't fall into the hands of Google, which had won the stalking horse bid. The patents fetched an impressive $4.5 billion and went to Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion and Sony.

With the exception of key design attributes of the iPhone, such as multitouch, Apple has up until now been seen largely as defenseless in most cellular intellectual property wrangles, having spent very little effort on pure R&D and virtually none on cellular technologies. Its strongest IPR holdings are in graphics and video creation, management and delivery and some facets of Operating Systems.

Nortel said that the auction lasted several days and included more than 6,000 patents and patent applications spanning wireless, wireless 4G, data networking, optical communication, voice, internet, service provider, semiconductors and other patents. The Nortel patent portfolio is said to even have patents relevant to Internet search and social networking.

"Following a very robust auction, we are pleased at the outcome of the auction of this extensive patent portfolio", said George Riedel, Chief Strategy Officer and President of Business Units, Nortel. "The size and dollar value for this transaction is unprecedented, as was the significant interest in the portfolio among major companies around the world."

The sale is subject to applicable Canadian and US Court approvals which will be sought at a joint hearing expected to be held on July 11, 2011. Nortel will work with the consortium to close the sale in the third quarter of 2011.

The only Google ally in the mix was Sony, unless you count its handset partner Ericsson, which has devices which use both Android and Microsoft mobile operators systems, but has lately been falling heavily in the Android camp.

It has not yet been established if each of the parties will get licenses to ALL the patents or whether they have put cash in for specific IPR assets, which seems most likely, but it is known that each company paid a different amount, which suggests that each put a value on the assets they wanted, and have agreed to own them directly.

All the initial estimates of the value of the Nortel patents, at around $1.5 billion have been shown to be completely short of the mark, and this landmark purchase could trigger other similar IPR hoards being placed on the market, as intellectual property has become more and more essential in fighting off patent actions.

Google had wanted the assets so that it too could fight back with its own patent hoard and opt for cross licensing patents, rather than always paying for them, but will now have to rethink its IPR strategy

Related Stories

COMMENTS

No comments yet. Be the first to add a comment!

Carrier Broadband Performance: Africa & Middle East
Carriers are using mobile broadband as their weapon of choice in the fight against the commoditization of voice and falling ARPU. This...

Voice over LTE: Market Analysis and Forecasts
VoLTE offer unique advantages in lowering a carrier's voice infrastructure economics and promises to improve voice quality, device...