Two of the biggest names in the phone are reportedly participating in the land grab for patents owned telcom company bankrupt Nortel.
Reuters quoted anonymous sources in an article published last week detailing how the ongoing auction of intellectual property assets of Canada’s first giant is expected to attract the interest of Apple, Google and others, perhaps including Motorola and Research In Motion .
Nortel filed for bankruptcy in June 2009 and has approximately 4,000 patents are estimated at a value of over U.S. $ 1,000,000,000 collectively. The rumor is that patents are divided into six groups by category, and cover everything from mobile phones, computers, wireless infrastructure, networks, Web-based advertising and voice technology. source told Reuters, “says Apple, Motorola and RIM are probably more interested in the IP related to LTE (Long-Term Evolution) 4G wireless technology, many companies are being deployed now.
The auction actually began seven months ago, but final bids are due shortly.
Apple and Google is not a surprise: they have plenty of cash to play. But why bother buying patents? On the one hand, is a potential source of revenue if sold licenses to patents after purchase. But above all is for legal protection. Almost all major players in the mobile world is embroiled in a lawsuit related to patents or other at this time. Only in the last year, Microsoft, Motorola, HTC, Apple, Google, Nokia are suing or being sued by a mobile or smartphone software intellectual property.