The patent battle royale that was supposed to take place next Monday, when6,000 of Nortel's patents were scheduled to go to auction, has been given an extra week to heat up.
The anticipation building around this auction is likely to push bids higher than Google's starting offer of $900 million for the whole package. Rich Ehrlickman, president of Boca Raton, Fla.-based patent broker IPOfferings, told Bloomberg he predicts the patents could fetch more than $1 billion as more bidders jump on-board.
Whether the patents will go piecemeal or in one expensive lump remains to be seen. Competitors for a piece or all of those patents will supposedly range from giants like Apple, Research in Motion and Microsoft to a bevy of "little guys" hoping to snatch up a few patents and lord them over the big guys.
In all cases, the patents offer the winning bidders a chance to create new technology and to sue rivals who tries to create a competing product that uses something even remotely close to what's described in the patent. Patent infringement lawsuits are a big money-generator for some companies and the first tool in the tool box for many others when they feel threatened by competition, and Nortel's patents would be a considerable weapon in anyone's intellectual property arsenal.
Past patent battles include the Supreme Court ruling last week that Microsoft illegally used an editing tool Canadian company i4i had a patent on, in a case that could have widespread ramifications on how patent infringement cases are proven.
Nokia sued Apple multiple times for allegedly ripping off their patented technology in iPads and iPhones, and Apple's lawsuit against Samsung to check its devices for any copyright infringement led Samsung to push to preview Apple's devices, too.
The list goes on and on. And it's likely to get much longer after the highly-anticipated auction finally takes place.
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