Qualcomm Inc. late Friday won its two-year licensing battle with Arm Holdings when a federal jury ruled that central processor designs Qualcomm acquired when it bought technology company Nuvia Inc. had been properly licensed.
Arm had demanded Qualcomm pay a higher licensing fee under a bilateral agreement between the two chipmakers, rather than the lower fee in Arm’s agreement with Nuvia, which Qualcomm bought for $1.4 billion in 2021.
Jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision, however, and Arm said it would seek a retrial. “I don’t think either side had a clear victory or would have had a clear victory if this case is tried again,” U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika said, according to Reuters.
“We are pleased with today’s decision. The jury has vindicated Qualcomm’s right to innovate and affirmed that all the Qualcomm products at issue in the case are protected by Qualcomm’s contract with ARM. We will continue to develop performance-leading, world class products that benefit consumers worldwide, with our incredible Oryon ARM-compliant custom CPUs,” Qualcomm General Counsel Ann Chaplin said in a statement Friday.
An Arm representative told wire service AFP that “our top priority has been to protect Arm’s (intellectual property) and the unparalleled ecosystem we have built with our valued partners over more than 30 years.”
In October, Qualcomm announced its latest system-on-chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite. The Oryon CPU is based on Qualcomm’s own chip designs, instead of the Arm Cortex designs of previous Snapdragons.
