Rockstar Consortium, an outfit that picked up the patent portfolio of bankrupt telecoms firm Nortel, has decided to sell of most of the technology involved to a company that touts itself to be a dedicated crusader of reducing patent litigation. RPX Clearinghouse intends to sweep up all of the 4,000 “zombie” Nortel patents from the consortium for a cool $900 million, according to Reuters, which might sound like a lot. However, when you place a $100 million shy of a billion next to the $4.5 billion which Rockstar paid in entirety back in 2011, it certainly looks like a bargain not to be missed.
Over 2,000 patents thereabouts had previously been given to Rockstar’s different member companies, where among them include luminaries such as Apple, BlackBerry, Ericsson, Microsoft, and Sony, and these patents will obviously be separate from the sale to RPX – imagine the mess that would ensue if that were not to be the case!
This particular move has come about rather soon after Google and Rockstar reportedly settled their long-running patent litigation, where Google had been targeted by Rockstar’s legal eagles, with many of the cases squarely targeting the Android mobile operating system. RPX claims that Rockstar patents will only be used for defensive purposes from today onward, and it has drawn up plans to license them on a subscription basis to all interested parties.
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