Google bids $900 million for Nortel patent portfolio, will use it as shield against patent trolls

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/04/google-bids-900-million-for-nortel-patent-portfolio-will-use-i/

Google and Nortel have agreed on the princely sum of $900 million to start off a "stalking horse" auction -- wherein outside parties are still free to outdo Google's bid -- for the acquisition of Nortel's rather vast patent portfolio. The sale comes as part of the latter company's bankruptcy selloff and involves some 6,000 patents and patent applications, which encompass both wired and wireless communications, semiconductors, data networking, voice, and the internet -- going so far as to even touch on web search and social networking. The thing is, Google's not really enamored with these tidbits of intellectual property to the tune of nearly a billion dollars. No sir, a rather bitter blog post from the company this morning makes it quite clear that Google's acting in order to bolster its own intellectual property library and to "create a disincentive for others to sue." Both Android and Chrome get obliquely mentioned in Google's announcement as benefiting from the move, which should be completed by June of this year pending other bids and regulatory approvals.

Continue reading Google bids $900 million for Nortel patent portfolio, will use it as shield against patent trolls

Google bids $900 million for Nortel patent portfolio, will use it as shield against patent trolls originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink ZDNet  |  The Official Google Blog  | Email this | Comments