Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, Research in Motion Ltd and three other leading tech companies received court approval on Monday to buy wireless patents from the bankrupt Nortel Networks Corp for $4.5 billion.

That’s a lot of money, but there are 6,000 patents in the portfolio, so it could save the group of companies a lot of headaches down the road.

Courts approve Nortel patent sale to Apple/RIM group | Rueters