Judges approve $4.5bn bid for Nortel's treasures

Google the big loser as rivals team up to snaffle Nortel's patent trove

Courts in the US and Canada have approved the sale of bankrupt networking firm Nortel's hoard of patents to a consortium of bidders, including Apple, Microsoft and Research in Motion, for $4.5bn (£2.8bn).

The 6,000 or so patents, many of which cover mobile technologies, will be jointly licensed by the members of the Rockstar Bidco consortium, which also counts EMC, Ericsson and Sony as members.

Rockstar won the auction for Nortel's patent catalogue after beating off competition from Google, Intel and patent licensing firm RPX.

The winning bid was five times higher than Google's stalking horse bid, which kicked off the process.

Interest in the patents had been huge as firms competing in the white-hot mobile market have become increasingly willing to use patent litigation to extract licensing fees from rivals.

In June 2011, Apple settled a long-running dispute with Nokia when it agreed to pay a licensing fee and compensation for some of the technologies used in its iPhone and iPad devices.

But a far bloodier battle can now be expected over Google's Android smartphone operating system.

Apple, Oracle and Microsoft have already begun proceedings against Google and companies that make Android-based handsets.

Google had originally said it was bidding for Nortel's patents as a means of defending itself against patent litigation.