Qualcomm Processors Properly Licensed From Arm, US Jury Finds (yahoo.com) 6
Jurors delivered a mixed verdict on Friday, ruling that Qualcomm had properly licensed its central processor chips from Arm. This decision effectively concludes Arm's lawsuit against Qualcomm, which had the potential to disrupt the global smartphone and PC chip markets.
The dispute stemmed from Qualcomm's $1.4 billion acquisition of chip startup Nuvia in 2021. Arm claimed Qualcomm breached contract terms by using Nuvia's designs without permission, while Qualcomm maintained its existing agreement covers the acquired technology. Arm demanded Qualcomm destroy the Nuvia designs created before the acquisition. Reuters reports: An eight-person jury in U.S. federal court deadlocked on the question of whether Nuvia, a startup that Qualcomm purchased for $1.4 billion in 2021, breached the terms of its license with Arm. But the jury found that Qualcomm did not breach Nuvia's license with Arm.
The jury also found that Qualcomm's chips created using Nuvia technology, which have been central to Qualcomm's push into the personal computer market, are properly licensed under its own agreement with Arm, clearing the way for Qualcomm to continue selling them.
The dispute stemmed from Qualcomm's $1.4 billion acquisition of chip startup Nuvia in 2021. Arm claimed Qualcomm breached contract terms by using Nuvia's designs without permission, while Qualcomm maintained its existing agreement covers the acquired technology. Arm demanded Qualcomm destroy the Nuvia designs created before the acquisition. Reuters reports: An eight-person jury in U.S. federal court deadlocked on the question of whether Nuvia, a startup that Qualcomm purchased for $1.4 billion in 2021, breached the terms of its license with Arm. But the jury found that Qualcomm did not breach Nuvia's license with Arm.
The jury also found that Qualcomm's chips created using Nuvia technology, which have been central to Qualcomm's push into the personal computer market, are properly licensed under its own agreement with Arm, clearing the way for Qualcomm to continue selling them.
One moron down (Score:3)
The writing's on the wall (Score:3)
Qualcomm's license can only be renewed through 2033 without ARM's agreement, which means that if ARM wants to, they can legally cut off Qualcomm's license at that point. If I were Qualcomm, I'd be working mighty hard to migrate to another instruction set by then, or at least a fallback plan in case license renegotiations fall through.
I guess RISCV is the only actual viable alternative, so Qualcomm would need to dump a significant amount of resources into pushing the state of Android's RISCV support forward over the next nine years.
Re: (Score:2)
Qualcomm would need to dump a significant amount of resources into pushing the state of Android's RISCV
Qualcomm has a market cap of $170B, so it has plenty of resources.
Apple's M1 had an NRE cost of about $3B. Qualcomm can afford a similar investment.
Even better, Qualcomm could team up and form a consortium. There are plenty of other companies that'd love to get out of ARM's thumbscrews.
Post case analysis - R&D version (Score:1)
Patent troll won (Score:1)