PowerBridge Launches with Avaya's Foundational Networking Patent Trove

READING, Pa. – April 10, 2026 – In a move poised to reshape the intellectual property landscape for networking technology, industry veteran Dr. Donald Bitting today announced the formal launch of PowerBridge Networks, LLC. The company's debut is marked by a significant strategic acquisition: the entire Networking patent portfolio from Avaya, a global leader in cloud communications.

The portfolio comprises a vast collection of over 500 patents and applications across approximately 390 patent families, representing foundational inventions in enterprise networking. With global coverage in the U.S., Europe, and key Asian markets, the acquisition positions PowerBridge as a formidable new player in the high-stakes world of technology licensing.

A New Player Enters the IP Arena

PowerBridge Networks enters the market with a clear mission: to acquire, manage, and license foundational patent portfolios. The firm aims to act as an intermediary, helping innovators monetize intellectual assets that are no longer core to their primary business, while providing manufacturers with streamlined access to best-in-class technologies. Led by Dr. Bitting, an IP strategist with over two decades of experience at giants like IBM, General Electric, and AT&T Bell Laboratories, the company touts an "agile business model" that leverages a network of partners in finance, law, and engineering.

"PowerBridge aims to bridge the gap between initial discovery and market adoption," said Dr. Donald Bitting, Founder and CEO, in a statement. "Not every inventor or corporate research department has the background, expertise, and connections to license their technology to implementers around the world, so our team provides that specialized service to enable broad industry access while creating stakeholder value."

Dr. Bitting emphasized the quality of the acquired assets, stating, "Avaya's networking patents embody pioneering work that underpins reliable, high-performance enterprise and cloud systems, and we look forward to licensing these valuable assets to technology and manufacturing companies worldwide."

Avaya's Strategic Shedding Continues

For Avaya, the divestiture is the latest step in a multi-year strategic transformation. The company has been methodically shedding non-core assets to sharpen its focus on its primary business of cloud communications and customer experience solutions. This transaction follows a clear pattern, most notably the sale of its Networking Business Unit to Extreme Networks back in 2017 for approximately $100 million, a deal that transferred hardware, personnel, and customer relationships.

More recently, in April 2024, Avaya divested a significant portfolio of over 1,500 Voice over IP (VoIP) patents to Dominion Harbor Enterprises, another intellectual property monetization firm. That sale has already resulted in litigation, with a Dominion Harbor subsidiary filing patent infringement lawsuits against major industry players like Comcast. This history suggests a well-defined corporate strategy at Avaya to extract value from legacy IP and reinvest in its cloud-first future.

Ed Fish of Tech+IP Finance, which advised Avaya on the deal, confirmed this strategic direction. "Following the sale of Avaya's Networking Business Unit to Extreme Networks, we led a competitive process for a significant portfolio of networking patents that were no longer core to Avaya's forward strategy," Fish stated. "PowerBridge ultimately emerged as the successful acquirer... Given their strong track record in patent monetization, we are confident these networking innovations will continue to generate meaningful value in their next phase."

The Legacy and Future of the Portfolio

The collection of patents acquired by PowerBridge is not just large; it is deeply rooted in the history of modern networking. Many of the assets trace their lineage to Nortel Networks, a pioneer in telecommunications and data networking. This "Nortel heritage" means the portfolio covers technologies that have become fundamental building blocks for enterprise networks, data centers, and service provider architectures.

PowerBridge is already organizing these assets into focused licensing programs. The first, dubbed 'PulseLink Systems,' bundles innovations related to control-plane intelligence, sophisticated traffic management, and secure connectivity. These are not niche applications; they are core functions that dictate how modern networks are configured, optimized, and operated at scale. The fact that several dominant US-based technology companies have already licensed the portfolio underscores its broad relevance and technical importance.

By structuring the assets this way, PowerBridge is signaling a sophisticated approach to monetization that goes beyond simply demanding royalties. It aims to offer logical technology packages to specific industry verticals, potentially simplifying the licensing process for companies that need access to these foundational technologies.

Reshaping the Networking Patent Landscape

The emergence of PowerBridge and its acquisition of such a significant portfolio has broader implications for the entire networking industry. The transaction highlights a growing trend where large technology companies divest valuable but non-core patent assets to specialized firms whose sole focus is monetization. This creates a more fluid and active secondary market for IP, but it can also introduce new complexities for technology implementers.

Companies across the telecom and enterprise IT sectors may soon find themselves in licensing discussions with PowerBridge for technologies they have been using for years, many of which originated with Avaya or Nortel. The precedent set by Avaya's 2024 VoIP patent sale, which quickly led to litigation, will undoubtedly be on the minds of legal counsels throughout the industry.

This trend is further amplified by a recent legal and policy shift in the United States that has become more favorable to patent owners, making it easier to enforce patent rights and more difficult to challenge their validity. In this pro-patent environment, firms like PowerBridge are well-positioned to launch effective and far-reaching licensing campaigns. While PowerBridge publicly commits to "responsible, efficient patent licensing," the industry will be watching closely to see whether its activities will primarily foster collaborative innovation or lead to a new wave of contentious disputes in the already complex networking patent minefield.