Google Buys Nortel's Patents for $900 Million

[f-14]

Google may have simple been tired of lawsuits

you screwed up the story mr perry.

decided to bid for Nortel’s patent portfolio in the company’s bankruptcy auction."

http/mashable.com/2011/04/04/google-nortel-patents/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mashable%2Fyahoo+%28Mashable+Top+Stories+-+Yahoo+News%29

Google Bids $900 Million for 6,000 Telecommunications Patents
by Ben Parr
Google has agreed to purchase Nortel’s approximately 6,000 patents, a portfolio that includes a wide array of wireless, 4G, semiconductor and data networking IP.

Canada-based Nortel Networks was once one of the largest telecom companies on the planet, worth C$398 billion at its peak during the dot com boom. The stock crashed and burned though, dropping to less than C$5 billion in market cap by 2002. The Canadian company never recovered and filed for bankruptcy in 2009, agreeing to liquidate all its assets later that year.

Since then, Nortel has been selling off its assets to pay back its creditors, and is now selling one of its most valued: its expansive patent portfolio, a century’s worth of IP “spanning wireless, wireless 4G, data networking, optical, voice, internet, service provider, semiconductors and other patent portfolios.” That’s part of why Google has entered into a stalking horse sale agreement with Nortel worth $900 million in cash.

According to federal law, Google can’t purchase the patent portfolio outright; the bankruptcy court has to give other bidders a chance to submit their offers. But it does mean Google is in the driver’s seat to acquire Nortel’s patented technologies. The search giant makes it clear in a blog post that it’s attempting to acquire Nortel’s portfolio as a defensive measure against patent litigation:

“But as things stand today, one of a company’s best defenses against this kind of litigation is (ironically) to have a formidable patent portfolio, as this helps maintain your freedom to develop new products and services. Google is a relatively young company, and although we have a growing number of patents, many of our competitors have larger portfolios given their longer histories.”

Google has been sued on multiple occasions for patent infringement, but let’s be clear: The Nortel deal is all about Oracle, which sued Google last year for IP infringement related to Android’s use of Java (a technology Oracle now owns, thanks to its acquisition of Sun Microsystems).

Things haven’t looked good for Google in its patent defense, so acquiring a comprehensive array of telecommunications patents could give it leverage in the Oracle lawsuit. It also gives Google additional protection from any company that wants to sue it in the future. And with tech companies like IBM and Microsoft being granted 3,000 to 5,000 patents per year, it’s easy to see why Google feels the need to play catch-up.

 

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oops kids hit enter key.
see even yahoo lied, this is a bidding auction and up for bid right now is nortels patents, google is leading so far with a $900million bid. Motorola and AT&T and Sprint and Verizon have yet to bid, so counting your chickens before they hatch is very unwise.

 

[gm0n3y]

[citation][nom]adiposity[/nom]Isn't this just a bid, and they haven't even won the auction yet?[/citation]
Yeah, that's what I read as well. Google hasn't bought anything yet. This is just the starting bid. Any other company could try to outbid them.

[citation][nom]znegval[/nom]Bullshit. Google has proven over time that they don't want to join the patent trolling crap. This purchase was probably merely a defensive move.[/citation]
The problem before was that Google didn't actually have many patents, especially relating to hardware. If this purchase goes through then only time will tell. I'd like to think that Google is above all that crap but who knows, money talks.

 

[cookoy]

google has to start building up its patents war chest to stave off some would-be patent trolls