Nortel Networks Limited has auctioned all Nortel's remaining patents and patent applications to a consortium of Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion and Sony.

The consortium's bid was $4.5 billion; RIM has confirmed its portion of the deal is approximately $770 million.

This week's edition of The Fonecast covers a wide range of subjects from within the mobile industry. We start with Symbian before moving on to 'white space' spectrum trials involving BT, the BBC, Samsung and Nokia. There's also time to talk about funding, favourite apps, legal action and some notable moves.

You can download this week's show from iTunes... or listen to the podcast by using the audio player on our website.

Mark Bridge writes:

Imagine a mobile phone that can’t be built without the permission of Apple. Impossible?  Unrealistic?  Not necessarily.

This week, Apple was awarded US patent 7,966,578. It's an application that was originally filed at the end of 2007, almost a year after the iPhone was first revealed.

UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has introduced new regulations that'll let mobile phone operators trade the rights to the radio spectrum they hold. The move is aimed at helping to increase mobile network capacity and improve mobile services for consumers.

This decision follows a government directive in December 2010.

Dolby Laboratories has filed patent infringement lawsuits against Research In Motion, claiming that RIM is using Dolby's digital audio compression technology in some of its BlackBerry smartphones and its PlayBook tablets without having obtained licences.

The legal action has been filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California and the District Court of Mannheim in Germany.