The Legal battle between Qualcomm and ARM over the use of the latter’s chip licenses has endedat least for now, after two years of litigation. A Delaware federal jury has ruled that Qualcomm did not violate the terms of its agreement with ARM with its purchase in 2021 of the startup Nuvia. Founded by three former Apple engineers, it licensed various ARM chip designs before its purchase, and it was precisely the use of these licenses that caused the British company to go to court in 2022.
Of course, even though Qualcomm has won the trial, the jury has not been able to determine whether Nuvia violated its agreement with ARM, which implies that the case can be reopened, and in fact ARM has already confirmed that it will appeal the decision. According to Reuters, US District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika does not believe that “neither party has a clear victory, or could have one if the case is reopened«.
Qualcomm bought Nuvia for $1.4 billion to boost its production of next-generation chips, as is the case with the Snapdragon Furthermore, according to testimonies given during the trial, Qualcomm’s internal documents show that they anticipated that with the operation they could save up to 1.4 billion annually in payments to ARM.
After the purchase, ARM began a court fight after Qualcomm continued to pay its royalties to ARM, which were apparently much lower than those paid by Nuvia. After the two parties failed to reach an agreement, the British company claimed that the designs Nuvia had licensed were no longer valid, and that Qualcomm should destroy the technology created with them.
But the jury sided with Qualcomm after seeing various internal ARM documents in which it was estimated that the company could have lost about $50 million in revenue as a result of the Nuvia purchase. Additionally, one of Nuvia’s founders, Gerard Williams, testified and claimed that the company only used one percent, or less, of ARM’s technology in its ready-made products.
As noted about the verdict Ann Chaplin, General Counsel, Qualcomm«The jury has justified Qualcomm’s right to innovate, and has ensured that all Qualcomm products at issue in the case are protected by Qualcomm’s contract with ARM. We will continue to develop world-class, performance-leading products that benefit consumers around the world with our custom ARM Oryon-compliant CPUs.«.
