Apple, Qualcomm, others eye InterDigital | Reuters

#Apple Inc, #Nokia and #Qualcomm Inc are among several technology companies pondering bids for InterDigital Inc, sources familiar with the situation said.

The auction of the wireless telecommunications specialist -- expected to be heavily contested as giant tech companies fight to shore up patent portfolios -- will be postponed from next week until after Labor Day, the sources said.

Shares in InterDigital, which has a market value of about $3 billion, leaped as much as 12.2 percent on the news. But it quickly backtracked and was up $4.38 or 6.8 percent at $68.41 in afternoon trade.

Patent battles by tech giants a fuzzy midpoint in phoney war - The Irish Times - Fri, Oct 08, 2010

MOTOROLA THIS week began proceedings against Apple for what it claimed were violations of its patents. The patents – Motorola claimed these include innovations in 3G and Wi-Fi antenna design, wireless e-mail, proximity sensing and software application management – all revolve around Apple’s iPhone, which just happens to be a major competitor.

If you haven’t heard about this lawsuit, it may be because it’s one of approximately a bazillion patent battles in the mobile field.

On Tuesday, Microsoft sued Motorola over its Android smartphones, including e-mail, contacts and calendar synchronisation. In March, Apple sued HTC, another maker of Android phones. The creator of Android itself, Google, was sued by Oracle for patent violations in August. Nokia is suing Apple, Qualcomm, the LG Group, Hitachi, Sharp, Samsung, Toshiba, Hitachi and Motorola.