Bidding for Nortel’s Patents

Nortel Network, the bankrupted communication technology company, will commence auction sales of its 6,000 patents and patent applications on 27 June, 2011. Apple Inc and Google Inc are amongst the many companies bidding for Nortel’s patents.

Motorola and Nokia can easily and have in recent months, defended itself and successfully sued other companies by digging into their large resource of patents. Google, on the other hand, is increasingly finding itself vulnerable to patent infringement claims.

Google is expected to bid aggressively as the company needs to significantly increase its pool of patents to defend itself against lawsuits as companies increasing look towards litigation for revenues and as means of disruptive business tactics. Our Consumer Electronics Industry Analyst, Mykola Golovko, had written an article in April on how litigation plays a critical role in shaping the competitive landscape in mobile phones. You can read the article here.