Nortel patent win for Apple, Microsoft and RIM faces anti-competition probe

The battle for Nortel's patents continues to rumble on after the news that Canadian regulators are to investigate the winning $4.5bn bid from Apple, Microsoft and RIM over anti-competition issues.

The Washington Post reported that regulators are worried that the bid will be unfairly detrimental to Google's Android operating system.

The move comes after the American Anti-Trust Institute urged the government to look at the case, noting in a letter to the US Department of Justice that Apple, RIM and Microsoft could use the patents to go after Google.

"They are the three main commercial rivals to Android, Google's open source mobile operating system. Each of them appears to possess the ability and incentive to use its patents offensively against open source as well as commercial competitors," the letter said.

"Why, in this light, should any horizontal collaboration among them be allowed with regard to the Nortel portfolio, particularly in the absence of any transparent safeguards against anti-competitive effects from it?"

V3.co.uk contacted Google for comment on the matter but had received no reply at the time of publication.

The move is somewhat ironic as Microsoft had cited concern about Google possibly winning the auctions and thereby disrupting agreements that had existed between Microsoft and Nortel, a concern that led to Apple entering the bidding process.

Bidding for the 6,000 patents relating to wireless, telecoms and LTE technologies was fierce, and Google was eventually beaten by the Rockstar consortium as the bids reached $4bn.

It was also revealed afterwards that Google made bids using numbers with significant mathematical relevance, such as Pi and the Meissel-Mertens constant, confusing other firms that were bidding in standard multiples.