Over four intense days last June, the New York office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton was home to a tech industry battle royal—the auction of bankrupt client Nortel Networks Corporation’s trove of more than 6,000 patents and patent applications related to smartphone technologies. At the contentious bidders’ table, Google Inc., Apple Inc., Rockstar Bidco—a consortium of five companies that included Microsoft Corporation and Sony Corporation—and two other tech titians faced off against each other. Along with the Silicon Valley rivals, Cleary’s forty-sixth floor was crowded with more than 100 people: Nortel debtors from around the world, members of the official creditors committee, not to mention everyone’s lawyers.
“The sale was unprecedented,” says Cleary bankruptcy partner Lisa Schweitzer. “In or out of bankruptcy, a stand-alone patent portfolio of that size had never been sold—we were starting from whole cloth.”
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
