Final bids are due within weeks for blocks of patents owned by Canada's once mighty telecom giant Nortel Networks, including some that could change the balance of power among mobile operators.
The rare intellectual-property portfolio sale is part of bankrupt Nortel's auction of assets, most of which have already been sold.
Sources expect the sale to draw wireless telecom newcomers Apple and Google, which want to build up patent war chests as they fight incumbents such as Nokia, which want to protect their patent positions, in the courts.
"There has been one round of bidding on those patents, this has been completed," said one source, who declined to be identified because the process is private. "And what Nortel has done is divide the patents up into different lots covering different kinds of technologies."
Nortel, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2009, holds more than 4,000 patents analysts say are worth more than $1 billion in total. Two sources with knowledge of the auction process say they have been grouped into six "buckets" of related technologies and that final bids are due within weeks.
Nortel declined comment, saying the process is confidential.
The patents cover wireless handsets and infrastructure, as well as optical and data networking, Internet, Internet advertising, voice and personal computers.
The patents likely to draw the most attention relate to third-and fourth-generation wireless technology such as Long Term Evolution, with device-makers such as Research In Motion, Motorola, and Apple seen as likely bidders.
"It is certainly a very significant stockpile of potent weaponry, and whoever lays their hands on it is going to gain significant advantage," said Alexander Poltorak, chief executive of General Patent Corp., which advises companies on intellectual property strategy and valuation but is not advising anyone involved in the Nortel patent auction.
The auction has been underway for about seven months, two sources said.
(c) Reuters
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