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.