August 3, 2009 |  Even as Nortel Networks gets ready to spin off its wireless and enterprise business units, evidence has emerged that the bankrupt giant has a path to remaining a viable company. And what, might you ask, is the magic elixir for weathering bankruptcy and the spinoffs of its most lucrative lines of business? In a word: patents.

Nortel, you see, is retaining ownership of its estimated 5,500 LTE patents, leasing them to wireless division buyer Ericsson. While 600 patents are being sold to Ericsson outright (likely for CDMA), none of them are for LTE, according to Nortel's Canadian lawyer Derrick Tay.