Unwired Planet, a technology company headquartered in Reno, Nevada, announced that China's Lenovo has agreed to buy a series of patent portfolios and licenses for an intellectual property portfolio from Unwired Planet for about USD100 million.

The payment will be made entirely in cash.

Under the agreement, Lenovo will purchase a 21 patent portfolio owned by Unwired Planet, covering 3G and LTE mobile patents as well as other important mobile patents. At the same time, the Chinese company will gain a multiyear licensing of Unwired Planet's intellectual property portfolio, covering mobile device standard basic patents, installation patents, and application technologies. The deal is expected to be completed in 30 days.

Jay Clemens, Lenovo general counsel, said in a statement that this investment is an extension of Lenovo's existing intellectual property portfolio. It will serve the company well as they grow and develop their worldwide smartphone and mobile PC Plus business in new markets.

Unwired Planet's share price surged by 61% after the announcement of the deal. Unwired Planet, previously named OpenWave, is called a patent troll by some media in the United States because of Unwired Planet's allegedly dubious activity to get companies to pay money for licensing patents owned by Unwired Planet.

Unwired Planet's technology claims to have enabled many industry firsts, including mobile browsing, mobile photo-messaging, and the world's first Wireless Application Protocol deployment. The company has built a patent portfolio of approximately 200 issued U.S. and foreign patents and approximately 75 pending applications, many of which are considered fundamental to mobile communications, and span smart devices, cloud technologies and unified messaging.