Apple, Microsoft and RIM get court approval to buy Nortel patents

US and Canadian courts have authorised the $4.5bn sale of Nortel patents to the Rockstar consortium led by Apple, Microsoft and RIM, dismissing fears that the transaction would be halted on anti-competition grounds.

Commentators had suggested that the patents could be used to target Google in court, but this has now been dismissed.

Lisa Schweitzer, an attorney for Nortel, was reported as saying during a joint hearing of the US Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that there was "no anti-trust risk to the deal".

Schweitzer also expects the deal to close in one month. The money from the auction will be added to the $3.2bn raised from the sale of Nortel's operating business and will go towards paying off creditors.

Nortel's collection of 6,000 patents is the largest sold to date. The race to secure the patents relating to wireless, telecoms and LTE technologies was fierce, and Google, Intel and RPX were among the interested parties.

The four-day auction was won by the Rockstar consortium of Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, RIM and Sony, and the companies will now divide the assets between them.

It is unknown whether Google was ever serious about acquiring the patents as the firm placed bids representing mathematical numbers, including Pi, and declined to offer more than the winning bid of $4.5bn.

However, the acquisition of patents relating to mobile technology by Google's rivals could deal a significant blow to the company, which has been trying to keep ahead of competitors in the handheld space.

V3.co.uk contacted Google for comment on the decision, but the firm had not responded at the time of writing.