DoJ Terrified of Apple Acquiring Nortel's Army of Patents

[Phillip Swanson]

On June 20, Canadian Telecom Nortel's catalogue of 6,000 plus patents will be up for auction as part of their bankruptcy filing, and the Department of Justice is terrified Apple will walk away with all that intellectual property.

The DoJ is investigating all of the companies that have expressed interest in acquiring what one legal expert called "a stockpile of nuclear weapons as far as patents go." Google, RIM, Apple, Microsoft, and Nokia were all identified as prospective bidders last year.

It appears Apple's recent IP litigation battle between Samsung, and their habit of suing the crap out of everybody has the DoJ nervous. The biggest concern expressed by the DoJ according to the Wall Street Journal is that patents could be used to hamper competition in the wireless market. Oddly enough, the DoJ doesn't view Google as a malicious threat. Their investigation hasn't found any competitive issues if Google were to acquire the patents.

Google, a young company, has an estimated 1,000 patents to its name. Comparatively Apple has between 4,000 and 5,000 patents, and Microsoft has close to 17,000. If either were to acquire Nortels IP the strong legal arm of each company could become a Hulk-like force.

And remember the "Hulk Smash."

Source: Wall Street Journal

[carbeto]

jajajajaja nice pic makes me laugh Darth Jobs handle de Apple Death Star!

[alexevo]

Oh man I really hope Microsoft or Google get this. Not that I don't like my iPhone, I think it's great but I think Apple is becoming too strong ever since forcing RIM out of the government device market.

[davshirley]

jajajajaja nice pic makes me laugh Darth Jobs handle de Apple Death Star!

Anyone remember when AT&T's logo was the death star? (think "bloom county")

[sephiroth726]

Geez... This suing everybody and patent wars are beyond ridiculous...

[bigboyz]

Oh man I really hope Microsoft or Google get this. Not that I don't like my iPhone, I think it's great but I think Apple is becoming too strong ever since forcing RIM out of the government device market.

Forcing? Hmmm...don't think so it's called competition and there are always 2 results! A loser and a winner! Apple won the first round...lets see what happens next.

[carbeto]

Anyone remember when AT&T's logo was the death star? (think "bloom county")

I don't