At the end of June, much of the technology industry’s focus was on an unprecedented event unfolding behind closed doors in the New York offices of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. As lead restructuring counsel for Nortel Networks, Cleary was overseeing the sale of the bankrupt Canadian telecom’s last valuable asset: a 6,700-patent trove that could be key to the future of mobile computing and the $4-trillion-a-year telecommunications market. And while the auction marked one of the last acts in the dismantling of what was once Canada’s leading high-tech company, it also had significant implications for the future of the company that has inherited that mantle, Research in Motion.
The patents up for grabs cover an array of wired and wireless technologies that are used in smartphones, tablet computers, cellular infrastructure, online search, and even social networking. Perhaps the most prized assets for sale were a batch of 4G Long-Term Evolution patents related to, among other things, the high-speed streaming of music and video content across next-generation networks. As an added bonus, the Nortel portfolio is not just U.S.-based. It offers coverage around the world, particularly in Europe and Asia.
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