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  • Apple Secures Portion of 6,000+ Nortel Patents
    by
    Phillip Swanson
    Published on 07-01-2011 01:04 PM
    11 Comments Comments



    Nortel's nuclear missel of a patent portfolio has finally been divvied up to the highest bidder. Or should I say bidders?

    Apple, RIM, EMC, Sony, Ericsson, and Microsoft made up the consortium that paid $4.5 bilion for the rights to the 6,000 plus patents Nortel held.

    The sale includes more than 6,000 patents and patent applications spanning wireless, wireless 4G, data networking, optical, voice, internet, service provider, semiconductors and other patents. The extensive patent portfolio touches nearly every aspect of telecommunications and additional markets as well, including Internet search and social networking.
    Google, who opened the bidding up at $900 million, appears to have reached the end of the baseball bat after everyone else and missed out. It is unclear who will get what among the members of the consortium. Common sense would assume the consortium would divide the patent portfolio based on the level of their investment. RIM reportedly threw $770 million into the pot and $Ericsson $340 million, as for the rest it is unknown. With $70 billion in cash laying around, I would venture Apple put in a sizable chunk.

    If the number of IP lawsuits lately between major players in the telecom and consumer electronics world are any indication, the owners of these newly acquired patents have a lot to gain from their investment. Particularly in regards to 4G network technology LTE, which 105 of the patents pertain to.

    However, the sale is still subject to approvals by the U.S and Canadian courts, and a hearing is expected to take place July 11th. It will be interesting to say the least to see what patents Apple secures when all the legal dust settles.

    Source: MarketWatch
    This article was originally published in forum thread: Apple Secures Portion of 6,000+ Nortel Patents started by Phillip Swanson View original post
    Categories:
    1. iPhone,
    2. iPad,
    3. Apple,
    4. Mac
    Comments 11 Comments
    1. Cer0's Avatar
      Cer0 - 07-01-2011, 03:29 PM
      So Google missed out?
    1. coolguy742's Avatar
      coolguy742 - 07-01-2011, 04:12 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by Cer0 View Post
      So Google missed out?
      Id say so
    1. Cokeman's Avatar
      Cokeman - 07-01-2011, 04:45 PM
      No. Google threw in more than Rim, Sony, & Ericsson. They will get their share of this gold mine. I'd like to know how much Apple, & Microsoft paid.
    1. sprackleor's Avatar
      sprackleor - 07-02-2011, 12:28 AM
      There is no way in hell you can convince me that Phillip Swanson is a professional journalist.
    1. jOnGarrett's Avatar
      jOnGarrett - 07-02-2011, 01:39 PM
      I think it would be best for consumers if these patents were divided up into equal parts and ONLY one part sold to each company bidding for them. it would be too much power for one or two companies to have all these patents. a company like apple would use them to kill any and all competition and we all know who suffers most when there's no competition.
    1. timwinslade's Avatar
      timwinslade - 07-02-2011, 02:33 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by Cokeman View Post
      No. Google threw in more than Rim, Sony, & Ericsson. They will get their share of this gold mine. I'd like to know how much Apple, & Microsoft paid.
      Sorry I think you will find Google were not in the consortium that purchased the patents and missed out totally. Google only offered $900 million for all the patents the consortium ended up paying $4.5 Billion to secure them all.
    1. trevorrawson's Avatar
      trevorrawson - 07-03-2011, 02:48 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by sprackleor View Post
      There is no way in hell you can convince me that Phillip Swanson is a professional journalist.
      What would persuade you to write crap like this? I don't see you contributing at all
    1. bcondemi's Avatar
      bcondemi - 07-03-2011, 05:25 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by sprackleor View Post
      There is no way in hell you can convince me that Phillip Swanson is a professional journalist.
      +1

      Quote Originally Posted by trevorrawson View Post
      What would persuade you to write crap like this? I don't see you contributing at all
      Agreed
    1. rkswat's Avatar
      rkswat - 07-03-2011, 06:45 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by bcondemi View Post
      +1



      Agreed
      Now there's a man playing both sides of the fence lol.
    1. sprackleor's Avatar
      sprackleor - 07-03-2011, 10:24 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by trevorrawson View Post
      What would persuade you to write crap like this? I don't see you contributing at all
      Did you read the piece? Maybe it's ok by your standards for a professional journalist (professional meaning he actually gets paid for this 'work') to make such basic mistakes such as spelling errors but I expect more. Especially when the primary tool of his trade has a gd spellchecker built into it lol! And not contributing? I disagree. If my comment gets back to the author and motivates him to take an extra minute to edit his article then it was worth it. But having read this persons work before, I can say that he probably did edit this piece prior to submitting and that is what is so disappointing.
    1. bcondemi's Avatar
      bcondemi - 07-03-2011, 01:26 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by rkswat View Post
      Now there's a man playing both sides of the fence lol.
      ;-)
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