Courts approve Nortel's sale of patent package to Google

Courts in the US and Canada have approved the auction of Nortel's patent portfolio, which is thought to be worth up to $1bn.

The company is selling around 6,000 patents covering licensing for wireless, LTE, networking, optical, service provider equipment, semiconductors and other portfolios.

Google has put in an opening bid of $900m, but rival bids are expected in the next month.

"Qualified bidders will be required to submit offers for the patent portfolio by 13 June 2011, subject to any permitted extensions," said Novell in a statement.

"Competing qualified bids would then be expected to proceed to an auction, currently scheduled for 20 June 2011. Following completion of the bidding process, the sale will require final approval of the US and Canadian courts."

Nokia has been mentioned as a possible early bidder, and RIM is hotly tipped to be putting in an offer, as is Apple.

Google has said that it wants to use the patents to defend against legal attack, by providing a pool of intellectual property that can be used to support cases and attack those that sue the company.