Nathan Myhrvold on Google, Nortel, and the Value of Patents

Nathan’s column recaps the events that led to the historic $4.5 billion auction, and discusses the implications of the sale on the smart phone wars, and the increasing value of invention rights as a strategic tool for the world’s largest technology companies:

“More importantly, this sale validates the notion that patents will be a fundamental tool in the tech industry. They had been moving toward that position for years, but the magnitude of Nortel’s sale shows that they have arrived.”