The consortium that acquired Nortel’s portfolio of around 4,000 tech patents is now putting those patents into battle.
Those patents were bought in March 2012 for $4.5 billion (£2.8 billion) by the Rockstar Consortium, which included Apple, Microsoft, RIM (BlackBerry), Ericsson and Sony.
Rockstar has filed a legal complaint against Google and seven smartphone manufacturers: Asustek, HTC, Huawei, LG, Pantech, Samsung and ZTE.
Google is being targeted with six patents that refer to search engine advertising, while the mobile manufacturers are facing up to seven patents that cover a variety of technologies and services - from the Android user interface to messaging and virtual private network management.
The lawsuit notes that Google had attempted to acquire the patents from Nortel but was unsuccessful with its bid.
[More details: BBC News; The Guardian]