Apple approved to bid on Nortel patents

Apple on Friday has received an approval to bid on a group of wireless technology patents from bankrupt Canadian company Nortel.

The auction was delayed by a week until June 27 due to significant level of interest in the patents.

Apple, Intel and Ericsson AB will buy a trove of 6,000 patents from Nortel to compete with Google, WSJ reported. RPX, a firm that purchases patents for its clients, has also been accepted as a qualified bidder.

Apple and Intel have been accepted as separate qualified bidders and Ericsson and RPX are accepted as part of a consortium to compete for the auction, reports said.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Justice had concluded an antitrust investigation into Google's $900 million starting bid for the collection, Apple Insider said quoting a source. The DOJ didn't find any major competitive issues with Google's interest in the patents, and has had greater concerns about Apple.

Officials are inspecting both Apple and Research in Motion because both companies are aggressive with their intellectual property, the report said quoting insiders.

The patent contains key swaths of the high-tech world that includes Wi-Fi, social networking and a fourth-generation wireless technology, and companies are interested in the group only for that key technology.

The LTE patent in the auction has raised concerns that the auction winner could gain an unfair advantage over competitors in the 3G 'arms race.'