Rockstar Consortium, jointly owned by companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Sony, and Ericsson Blackberry, is reportedly in talks to sell a portion of about 4,000 patents in its portfolio. The patents were acquired by the consortium for $4.5 billion in 2011 from the bankrupt Nortel Networks Corp.
Rockstar was able to beat other companies, including Google, during the bidding process for the highly-sought patents and patent applications. The collection of patents include that of communications hardware, wireless technologies, and Internet services. Some of the said patents have been sold to intellectual property company Spherix in July for an undisclosed amount and $1 million worth of stocks.
"The group, called Rockstar Consortium, has recently been in conversations with possible buyers about the patents, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn't public," unnamed sources revealed to Bloomberg. "Rockstar...has had little success in landing large licensing deals for the patents."
"A buyer, or several buyers, could acquire Rockstar's patent portfolio excluding those involved in the lawsuits, two people said. Because Rockstar bought the Nortel patents at a high price and doesn't want to sell them at a loss, the deals could be structured to take advantage of any future financial gain enjoyed by the buyer," the report added.
Parties involved in the lawsuit filed by the consortium in October cannot acquire any patents. Rockstar had sued Google, ZTE, Asustek, Samsung Electronics, HTC, Huawei, Pantech, and LG Electronics for infringing several patents it holds. The patents involved in the lawsuits will also not be put up for sale.
According to the Bloomberg report, there is also a possibility that another company will join the Rockstar Consortium without patents being sold.
Officials of Rockstar Consortium has not commented about the said patents sale. Companies backing up the group have also declined to comment about the matter.
Nortel filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Google showed interest in Nortel's portfolio and bidding started at $900 million and jumped to $4.5 billion. The deal was given a go by the regulatory agencies in 2012 following an antitrust probe that was launched on Apple on concerns that the technology giant may use the patents against its competitors. Apple had paid $2.6 billion of the deal amount.
