Apple and Microsoft Beat Google for Nortel Patents

Nortel Networks, the defunct Canadian telecommunications equipment maker, said that it had agreed to sell more than 6,000 patent assets to a consortium made up of Apple, Microsoft and other technology giants for $4.5 billion in cash. The group of companies — which also included Research in Motion, Sony, Ericsson and EMC — beat out Google and Intel for the patents and patent applications that Nortel had accumulated when it was still one of the largest telecom equipment makers in North America.

Kent Walker, Google’s general counsel, said that the auction’s outcome was ‘‘disappointing for anyone who believes that open innovation benefits users and promotes creativity and competition.” In April, Google made a stalking-horse bid of $900 million for the patents, some of which are related to the 4G wireless technology known as long-term evolution. Networks based on that technology, considered crucial to the future of telecommunications, are created to carry large amounts of data like streamed video to mobile devices. The Google offer was interpreted as a defensive move by the search engine giant, which was seeking intellectual property rights to shield itself from lawsuits as it moves deeper into the mobile business with its Android platform.

Two years after it filed for bankruptcy, Nortel sold off its last remaining patents — covering businesses from wireless and networking technology to semiconductors. The sale will require approval from courts in Canada and the United States, Nortel said. Some 2,600 of the patent assets are American. A joint hearing has been scheduled for July 11.