Billionaire investor Carl Icahn urged Motorola Mobility to explore alternatives for its patent portfolio, sending the handset maker's shares up 19 percent.

The comment from Motorola investor Icahn follows Nortel's recent sale of technology patents for $4.5 billion and InterDigital Inc's announcement earlier this week that it would look at selling itself.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew)

Carl icahn Motorola