Google gets green light for $900m Nortel patent bid

Department of Justice decision likely to anger Microsoft, Apple and others

Google has been given the go-ahead by anti-trust regulators to pursue its $900m bid for a bounty of patents owned by defunct Canadian telecoms firm Nortel Networks, in a move that is likely to dismay rivals including Apple, Microsoft and Nokia.

A report in The Wall Street Journal said that Department of Justice (DoJ) investigators will allow Google to bid for the 6,000 patents, although this has yet to be officially confirmed.

Google declined to comment on the news.

The patents include licensing for wireless, LTE, networking, optical, service provider and semiconductor technology portfolios, among others.

Google has gone on record as saying that it wants the patents to "create a disincentive for others to sue Google", and to help the open source community innovate on its Android and Chrome platforms.

However, the DoJ decision is unlikely to go down well with Apple and RIM, which are also set to bid for the patents and see Google as their chief rival.

Furthermore, Microsoft, HP, Nokia and others have all filed objections to the sale of the patents, arguing that it could give the buyer an unfair competitive advantage and possibly allow them to terminate existing licence agreements between Nortel and other parties.