Intel has gone on a patent buying spree, snapping up 190 patents and 170 patent applications from Real Networks, including those related to music streaming.

Setting the chip company back $120 million (£76.5 million), Intel thinks the patents will work in its favour as it expands its mobile product lines.

As the company puts it, the patents will allow it to "continue to offer richer experiences and innovative solutions to end users across a wide spectrum of devices, including through Ultrabook devices, smartphones and digital media".

Patent trolling

Real Networks, meanwhile, will still be able to continue using some of the patents in its current and future digital music products as part of the deal.

Other patents included in the deal relate to creation of video codecs that allow efficient exchange of filmed content over networks.

As well as boosting Intel's own products, the portfolio should bolster the company in case of being sucked into the legal wranglings over intellectual property rights that plagued the mobile industry in 2011.