The stage is now set for Google to buy 6,000 of Nortel's patents.
A U.S. bankruptcy judge approved Nortel's plan to have an auction on June 20 and Google has put in the starting bid of $900 million.
In its submission to the judge, Nortel said if Google does not win the auction then Nortel will have to pay Google $25 million.
There are rumours that RIM and other big technology players may be interested in submitting bids for the patents, which cover a wide spectrum of technology including wireless information.
No one has gone public besides Google. In past auctions of Nortel assets the other bidders were usually not publically identified.
The judge also approved the conditions for submitting another bid and interested parties have until June 13 to put in a bid.
Once the auction is complete the deal will have to go back to the courts for final approval.
Google said it wants the patents to reduce the number of people who might allege that Google has infringed on patents, as Google continues to expand its operations far beyond the boundaries of online searches.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Paul Brent
