Arm lawsuit against Qualcomm ends in mistrial and favorable ruling for Qualcomm

Arm Holdings sued Qualcomm over the alleged breach of a licensing agreement. But a jury today found it could not reach a conclusion on one of the allegations and found in favor of Qualcomm on another.

Arm sued Qualcomm after Qualcomm acquired Arm licensee Nuvia for $1.4 billion. The jury could not come to an agreement on whether Nuvia breached its license agreement, but it also said that Qualcomm did not breach Nuvia’s license with Arm.

“We are pleased with today’s decision,” Qualcomm said in a statement. “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.”

The jury said that Qualcomm had properly licensed its central processor chips. Arm shares were down in after-hours trading, while Qualcomm shares were up slightly. The case held in U.S. federal court in Delaware could be tried again.

The jury also found that Qualcomm’s chips, which were created using Nuvia’s own technology, are properly licensed under Nuvia’s agreement with Arm. That means Qualcomm can continue selling them. Those chips are helping Qualcomm move into the personal computer market.

In a statement, Arm said, “We are disappointed that the jury was unable to reach consensus across the claims. We intend to seek a retrial due to the jury’s deadlock. From the outset, our top priority has been to protect Arm’s IP and the unparalleled ecosystem we have built with our valued partners over more than 30 years. As always, we are committed to fostering innovation in our rapidly evolving market and serving our partners while advancing the future of computing.” 

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