Google bids on Nortel's patent portfolio

INTERNET GIANT Google has bid on a large patent portfolio owned by the bankrupt Canadian telecommunications equipment firm Nortel, citing litigation defence and plans to aid the open source community as reasons for the decision.

Google reportedly has offered $900 million for the entire catalogue, which includes about 6,000 patents. Nortel is using Google's bid as a starting point, obviously keen to see if Google's rivals, such as Apple and Microsoft, will go higher.

Google explained its decision to bid for the extensive patent library by saying that the best defence against attracting patent lawsuits is to have a "formidable patent portfolio". The company said that since Google is relatively young it doesn't have as many patents as competitors, putting it at a disadvantage when it comes to introducing new products that don't infringe the patents of others.

Google also claimed that its bid will help the open source community and specifically mentioned Android and Chrome as two likely areas that would benefit from the patents.

Android looks likely to benefit most from the deal, as many of the patents are focused on telephone, networking and wireless technologies. Nortel had a strong presence in the enterprise sector, so technological developments to aid businesses could be implemented by Android to help it succeed in the business smartphone market, which has some tough competition from Research in Motion.

Nortel filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and has been selling off key parts of its business ever since, which have proven attractive for many big names. Communications firm Avaya bought the enterprise division of Nortel last year, while Microsoft spent $7.5 million on the company's IPv4 addresses, which number just over 666,000. It seems likely that its extensive patent portfolio will be a much more contested sale. µ