Qualcomm Declares Victory in a Legal Battle Against ARM

Qualcomm declared a complete victory in a court case brought by Arm in 2022. The announcement came after a US district court rejected a final legal claim against the US chipmaker around a breach of licensing terms.

It stated the court rejected Arm’s attempts to stifle innovation, confirming neither it nor subsidiary Nuvia breached an architecture licence agreement (ALA) for chip technology it acquired when it bought Nuvia four years ago. The ruling dismisses the lone remaining claim in Arm’s lawsuit as it attempted to overturn the ALA decision after a victory for the US chipmaker during a trial in December 2024.

A jury decided unanimously that Qualcomm did not breach the Nuvia ALA and that Qualcomm’s innovative CPU cores incorporating technology obtained in the Nuvia acquisition were properly licensed under Qualcomm’s own ALA, it stated. However, Arm separately stated it would immediately file an appeal seeking to overturn the judgment.

Ann Chaplin, general counsel and corporate secretary at Qualcomm, said the court’s decision means Qualcomm and Nuvia have achieved full victory. She noted the decision came after its success in the trial in December 2024 and is a full and final judgment in Qualcomm’s favour. “Our right to innovate prevailed in this case, and we hope Arm will return to fair and competitive practices in dealing with the Arm ecosystem.”

Neil Shah, VP at Counterpoint Research, said the victory is significant because it allows Qualcomm to deploy Nuvia technology across a much broader spectrum of applications, from PCs, smartphones, and automotive, to high-performance computing domains like AI servers and even humanoid robots.