I wish Dana would get this fact straight...
Having lost Nortel, this is a fight Google has to win. The current Interdigital market cap is $3.1 billion, [i]but the 1,300 patents now on offer are said to be worth even more than those of Nortel, because they're more central to the way modern networks work. [/i]
As he notes:
InterDigital owns more than 8,600 patents and has an additional 10,000 on application. The patents cover a broad variety of wireless and wire line communication, including 2G, 3G, 4G, and LTE, as well as IEEE 802.
Now, like Kodak (EK) and Nortel, Interdigital wants to cash out. Interdigital shareholders are in for a huge payday, as Google (GOOG) fights with Apple (AAPL) for the rights to the past, rights that could determine the future.

"The world is a dangerous place to live�not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." �Albert Einstein