Aww, Canada

Between Nortel and RIM, we’ve seen $500 billion in market value vanish from Canada’s tech scene. We’d get a complex but we already have one.

Mathew Ingram, tweeting about BlackBerry’s $4.7 billion buyout offer

Canada’s Worried About BlackBerry, and It Should Be

The Canadian government is “paying close attention” to BlackBerry’s downward spiral.
BlackBerry_Canadian_Flag

Voices

Patent Trolls vs. Progress

Microsoft announced this week that it’s paying America Online $1.1 billion in cash for 800 of its patents. This comes just nine months after Apple, Microsoft and others beat out Google and Intel for control of Nortel Networks’ 6,000 patents, paying a then astounding $4.5 billion in cash. And in August of last year, Google announced a deal for Motorola Mobility along with their 24,000 patents for $12.5 billion. What’s going on here?

AOL Has Some Pretty Sweet Patents, Too, Tim Armstrong Tells Wall Street

“Beachfront property in East Hampton.”

Voices

Chinese Hackers Suspected In Long-Term Nortel Breach

For nearly a decade, hackers enjoyed widespread access to the corporate computer network of Nortel Networks Ltd., a once-giant telecommunications firm now fallen on hard times.

News Byte

DOJ Likely to Clear Rockstar Bidco’s Nortel Patent Purchase

Looks like the Justice Department plans to approve the $4.5 billion sale of Nortel’s wireless technology patents to a consortium led by Microsoft and Apple. Sources familiar with the matter say the DOJ has addressed concerns that the consortium might use the patents to unfairly hamstring competitors. It’s not clear when the DOJ will issue its approval, but when it does some 6,000 wireless patents will be transferred over to Rockstar Bidco, an alliance that also includes Research In Motion, Sony, Ericsson AB and EMC.

John Roese on Redefining Huawei and the Democratization of Smartphones

Today, Huawei is a $29 billion company. Ten years from now, it hopes to be at $100 billion. The head of Huawei’s North American R&D team is one of the guys charged with making that happen.

Worth More Dead Than Alive: Could HP Turn a Profit on Palm’s Patents?

Like gutting a broken-down historic house to salvage the pricey copper pipes, will HP now sell Palm for its patent parts?

Defense Spending: Google Arms Itself With Moto Patents

With its $12.5 billion deal to acquire Motorola Mobility, Google is gaining not only a major Android handset manufacturer, but a vast trove of intellectual property with which to defend its operating system.

More AsiaD Speakers: Sony, Google+, Microsoft, Hollywood, Huawei and Hot SV Start-Ups!

Here’s the latest list of speakers for the upcoming AsiaD conference, which will take place October 19 to 21 in Hong Kong.

Who Wants Nortel’s 4G Patents?