RPX will buy 4,000 patents from Microsoft and other Rockstar Consortium members for $900 million

By John Callaham
published

RPX has announced it will acquire the remaining 4,000 patents held by the Rockstar Consortium, which includes Microsoft among its members, for $900 million. The agreement will also end the lawsuits that Rockstar had previously filed again a number of Android smartphone companies, including Samsung, HTC, LG and Huawei

Apple teamed up with Microsoft, BlackBerry, Ericsson, and Sony to purchase 6,000 patents from the defunct Nortel Networks for $4.5 billion in 2011, outbidding Google. 2,000 of those patents were distributed between those five companies, while the remaining 4,000 were collected under the Rockstar Consortium organization.

RPX explained what it will do with those patents now that they are under its control:

RPX Clearinghouse will receive license payments from a syndicate of over 30 companies, including Cisco and Google. Upon closing, which is subject to regulatory approval and other customary conditions, syndicate participants will receive non-exclusive licenses to the Rockstar patents, and RPX Clearinghouse will make the patents available for license to all other interested companies under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

Rockstar announced a settlement with Google in November concerning seven search-related patents that Rockstar claimed Google had violated.

Source: RPX, Wall Street Journal

John Callaham
John Callaham
53 Comments
  • U.S. patent system is sick.
  • Oh everything about the US is sick... Everything about every country is sick my friend...
  • Hail.........hydra
  • North Korea have best system
  • Lol
  • Offtopic:when denim will available for 625 in India?
  • March 2015.
  • Ty,By that time i,ll be on lollipop.
  • I think this is the best time to suck on that lollipop
  • Just buy a android then and choke on lollipop live it or leave it but stop coming on tho site talking about how big of android follower you are just follow the crowd get that ugly android and be forevermore slave to google and its minions not to mention viruses you better find a good anti virus and a cach cleaner to prevent lag on the lagdroid
  • @Jitendra Tripathi googbye to you.
  • Hopefully in jan
  • Why would you be interseted in Denim for the 625? It will not offer anything substantial for that phone as most, if not all, the new and improved features require newer hardware and a better SoC. The 625 will not gain anything from running Denim really.
  • And you just had to be a d*ck Paul
  • I owned a 625 still missing some important features like WiFi direct etc
  • I think thats the point that was being made, you wont get any of that with a 625.
  • @Jitendra Tripathi you'll be sucking on lollipop so what do you care.
  • Wi-Fi direct is already present dude. Just use easy transfer, and a ton of other apps offering the same functionality in the WP store. Oh, and I forgot to mention, don't forget to stuck your lollipop, coz it wont get even half the no. Of updates your 625 did. I can give that to you on writing.
  • Off topic from your off topic, but RPX will buy 4,000 patents from Microsoft and other Rockstar Consortium members for $900 million.
  • #Whoa...
  • Banned for life haha :D
  • Lol yours so mean.
  • Whahah x{D i read that story x{D heheheh :B
  • Lol hey! I learned my lesson ok... It wasn't cool, I lost all my games, all my purchases, my music, videos, and I had just bought a new $25 gift card the day before it happened :/. Lol ok it is kinda funny but it was a year ago... So yeh and I got an Xbox One now, im not risking it.
  • remind me of this : http://youtu be/TJ1TYk4u5Is
  • Nothing to do with my name guys.
  • lol
  • Lol I was about to ask you about patents.
  • Haha
  • I didn't get it. So will MS have to pay to use those patents now?
  • Yes.
  • They are leaving em cause they don't need em anymore..!!
  • It doesn't sound like it. It looks like the original Rockstar partners - Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry, Ericsson, and Sony - get a non-exclusive license. They'll probably also split the profits from the sale.
  • To use? No. As the article states, the patents will be available under FRAND use.
  • so is that good or bad for Microsoft. bcoz Microsoft is king of earning through patents.
  • Now it will pay the license for those 4000 if it chooses to use them.
  • What if they don't really have plans to use very many of those patents. The cost to use a select few would be better for them.
  • nope. they can use them, but wont own them - they cant sue anyone lse for using them. 'RPX Clearinghouse will make the patents available for license to all other interested companies under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.'
  • Well, lawsuits are costly. Better off loading these to a patent troll and sitting bad peacefully instead.
  • 900million dollar oh my god
  • Were these patents contributing to a huge income for MS?
  • Depends on the patents that were sold. MS is not stupid and they know this is a huge source of revenue. I would have to imagine that these are non essential to MS business model.
  • Good to see they all made a profit on them
  • They lost hundreds of millions of dollars....
  • Not really, most likely they took the most important ones and sold the rest.
  • No, when the consortium was set up, they paid $4.5 billion for the patents. Now, they're selling them for 1/5 of what they paid for them. They lost $3.6 billion collectively.
  • Who knows what was/will be earned with the settlements which are made with Google and others? The 2000 patents which are NOT sold will probably make much more money coming years. Looks like the best are taken out and the rest is sold for not being interesting enough.
  • but all the members avoided costly legal battles with each other over the use of them. That was the point of the consortium.
  • In OED, Google=A company which violates the patents from every other company.
  • Yeah, it's not like Microsoft lose $223 Million for using someone else's patents or anything. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/12/trolls-last-payday-microsoft-...
  • North Korea o.O for real ? You compare North Korea to USA ? With all USA's problems right now and even if the people are living homeless without water, its still better than North Korea.
  • Nortel Canadian tax dollars at work....
  • Devices become so cheap without these patents....