A private auction for more than 4,000 technology patents owned by Nortel Networks is in its final weeks, representing that last major wave of asset sales for the bankrupt Canadian telecom.

Potential bidders for the patents, which are expected to fetch more than $1 billion, include hi-tech icons Apple, Google, Motorola and Research In Motion, the maker of the Blackberry smart phone.

Reuters news service reported today that some of Nortel's hottest patents relate to wireless communications technology known as 3G, 4G and LTE, or Long Term Evolution, which enable wireless broadband transmissions of video, movies and other data.