Apple and Google vie for Nortel patent assets

Nortel's patents are thought to be worth more than $1bn

The closure of Canadian former telecoms giant Nortel Networks has led to a bidding war for its intellectual property by some of the biggest names in the business.

According to Reuters Apple, Google and Nokia are among those trying to bid for the intellectual property assets of the company, which once was valued at $250bn and employed 90,000 staff.

At stake are patents that are key to future wireless technologies such as LTE (Long Term Evolution) as well as other computing IP. Nortel is thought to have organised six lots for sale: wireless handsets and infrastructure; optical and data networking; internet; internet advertising; voice; and personal computers.

"There has been one round of bidding on those patents, this has been completed," said an anonymous source.

"And what Nortel has done is divide the patents up into different lots covering different kinds of technologies."

The defunct company is thought to be holding intellectual property worth over $1bn in an open auction.

"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.