Wedbush Sees Openwave (OPWV) Patent Portfolio Valued at $100M

Wedbush is reiterating its Outperform rating and $2.75 price target on shares of Openwave Systems (NASDAQ: OPWV) following an earlier complaint against Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and RIM (Nasdaq: RIMM) filed with the ITC.

Openwave's complaint requests a halt of all imports of Apple and RIM products, including both smartphones and tablets, which infringe on the company's patents.

Patents included in the complaint:

• 6,289,212 patent, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Providing Electronic Mail Services During Network Unavailability”, issued 9/11/2001, expires 10/13/2018
  
• 6,430,409 patent, enititled “Method and Architecture for an Interactive Two-Way Data Communication Network”, issued 8/6/2002, expires 12/11/2015
  
• 6,405,037 patent, enititled “Method and Architecture for an Interactive Two-Way Data Communication Network”, issued 6/11/2002, expires 12/11/2015
  
• 6,625,447 patent, enititled “Method and Architecture for an Interactive Two-Way Data Communication Network”, issued 9/23/2003, expires 12/11/2015
  
• 6,233,608 patent, enititled “Method and System for Securely Interacting With Managed Data from Multiple Devices”, issued 5/15/2001, expires 12/9/2017

Wedbush believes Openwave's decision to file the complaint shows initiative to defend and monetize its patent portfolio. The firm sees the value of Openwave's 200 patent portfolio to roughly $100 million.

Wedbush notes Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) was not mentioned in the complaint as the company could be in talks with Openwave over the matter.

Recently patents have been gaining more interest as companies begin trying to squeeze margins where ever possible. Recent M&A dealings focused on patents include Google's pending acquisition of Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI), Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) and patents from Nortel.

Shares of OPWV reacted favorably to the news and are currently trading up 21 percent, or $0.31, to $1.78.

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