Google has reached an agreement with the patent consortium Rockstar over the latter’s acquisition of Nortel Network Corp patents. The patents were acquired in 2011 for $4.5 billion.
Last year Rockstar sued and several handset manufacturers claiming that the Android operating system infringed on seven of the Nortel patents. They all relate to an invention called an “associative search engine” which allows Google to provide advertisements to marketers based on users’ search terms.
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The terms of the deal were not disclosed. A term sheet outlining the agreement was filed in a Texas Federal court.
Rockstar asked the Texas court to stay all deadlines in the case until December 29th so that the sides could hammer out a final settlement.
“This period (45 days from the Term Sheet) is necessary due to the complexity of the transaction and the number of additional parties whose claims are concurrently being resolved, ” according to the filing.
The deal comes after Google had attempted to get a California court to dismiss the suit against it and the other companies involved. It did succeed, however, in getting a Texas court to grant a delay in the suit while the California court debated the issue. This agreement should moot the California proceedings.
The deal would not apply to other defendants in the suit such as Samsung.
