The U.S. Department of Justice is examining bidders, together with Apple and Google, fascinated by Nortel’s patent portfolio, in line with a report within the Wall Street Journal that cites unnamed folks aware of true.
The agency is worried that the patents may be used to hamper competition within the wireless business, in line with the report.
In April, Google said it had bid US$900 million for thousands of patents that Nortel is auctioning off as a part of its bankruptcy proceedings. whereas courts within the U.S. and Canada, where Nortel is predicated, approved Google’s provide, alternative interested patrons have till June twenty to counterbid for the over half dozen,000 patents.
The DOJ has been reviewing Google’s bid however hasn’t found competitive problems with it, the Journal reported. However, firms together with Apple and Nokia are rumored to be attending to bid. in line with the Journal story, the DOJ’s antitrust division cares|worries|is bothered} primarily with Apple and also the company has been talking with the agency about the considerations.
When Google created its bid for the patents public, it said it wished the portfolio to form a disincentive for others to sue Google.
Lawsuits are rife within the wireless market, that has experienced explosive growth. several of the most important hardware and software manufacturers are engaged in patent disputes. firms that use Google’s Android operating system are in style targets.
The Nortel patents cowl technologies associated with 4G, information networking, optical, voice, web and semiconductors, Nortel has said.
Nortel has been selling off assets since it filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2009. it’s sold its CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access) wireless division to Ericsson for over $1 billion and its enterprise networking business to Avaya for just below $1 billion.
The DOJ, which regularly doesn’t touch upon investigations, failed to immediately reply to queries on Friday. Neither Google nor Apple replied to requests for comment.