July 8, 2011 - Following the sale of Nortel Networks' patent portfolio to a six-company coalition of Google's rivals, federal antitrust enforcers are investigating whether the coalition's purchase of the patents constitutes unfair competition against Google.
The coalition, which called itself Rockstar Bidco, paid $4.5 billion for the patents from the now-defunct Nortel Networks. It is as yet unclear exactly what the coalition intends to do with the patents, but many experts surmise that Nortel's IP will be used to block or challenge Google's Android mobile phone software - which is currently the most popular mobile operating system in the world, beating out even Apple's iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry.
RIM, Apple and Microsoft were among the companies in the patent-purchasing coalition.