Apple-backed consortium reportedly planning to sell off patent portfolio

Rockstar, a consortium backed by Apple, Microsoft, Sony, and other tech giants, is planning to sell off most of its patent portfolio. The group beat Google in a bidding war for these patents, which previously belonged to Nortel, but is now seeking to off-load them, or at least the ones that have served no purpose.

A consortium created by Apple Inc. (AAPL), Microsoft Corp. and other technology companies to acquire $4.5 billion of patents from Nortel Networks Corp. in 2011 is holding discussions to sell a portion of those patents, according to people with knowledge of the plans. The group, called Rockstar Consortium, has recently been in conversations with possible buyers about the patents, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Rockstar, which also includes BlackBerry Ltd. (BBRY), Ericsson AB and Sony Corp., has had little success in landing large licensing deals for the patents, three of the people said.