Nortel, once a leader in telecommunications, went bust in 2009 and since then they’ve been selling off pieces of their vast empire to the highest bidder. One of their key assets, some 6,000 patents in the areas of wireless video, WiFi, internet search, social networking, and WiFi, are currently up for grabs. Google has placed what’s known as a “stalking horse” bid of $900 million on them, meaning that they were the first company to show interest in Nortel’s patents and the first to quantify their value; now other companies must compete against that figure. The actual auction for the massive patent portfolio is set to take place later this month, on the 20th, and while the full list of companies participating in said auction isn’t yet known, we do know that Apple has shown some interest. Thing is though, the US Justice Department doesn’t like where this is going. Looking at Google’s history of how they’ve dealt with patents, they’re not scared that the search giant may start suing everyone just because they can. Apple on the other hand … when they’re not thinking up new and innovative devices in their Willy Wonka like campus in California, they’re in court fighting tooth and nail to make sure no one copies what they’ve built.
Here’s what some experts are saying about the upcoming auction: “You’re acquiring a stockpile of nuclear weapons as far as patents go,” said Alexander Poltorak, CEO of General Patent. “These patents are like loose nukes rolling around,” says Gary Reback, a Silicon Valley attorney, adding: “Now you have these entities that have gone around solely for the purpose of financial exploitation buying up all these loose nukes.”
Whoever wins these “nukes”, Microsoft has already entered into an agreement with Nortel that ensures they’ll be able to use these patents, regardless of who owns them. That’s what we call winning.
[Via: Phone Scoop]