Arm Found Guilty of Breaching License Agreement

A US jury has determined that Arm violated its Architectural License Agreement (ALA) with Qualcomm. According to a statement released by Qualcomm, the jury in a U.S. district court ruled that Arm failed to fulfill its contractual obligations and acted intentionally to disrupt Qualcomm’s commercial operations.

The decision represents a significant escalation in the ongoing dispute between the semiconductor industry leaders. The verdict follows what Qualcomm characterized as a previous judicial victory last year in the legal conflict regarding custom CPU architectures, licensing rights, and the implementation of advanced silicon designs. Qualcomm framed the outcome as a defense of open market competition and a validation of its strategic technology roadmap.

“Together with Qualcomm’s prior court victory, this outcome further exposes Arm’s broader intentions to harm Qualcomm and its ecosystem,” Qualcomm stated. “This outcome is a victory for innovation and competition, and we remain focused on developing and delivering industry-leading semiconductor products including our Oryon CPUs to customers and consumers worldwide.”

While Qualcomm asserted victory, Arm stated it was satisfied with the jury’s decision, which found in favor of Arm on four claims and awarded only one dollar in damages for each of Qualcomm’s remaining two claims. “Despite Qualcomm’s pursuit of this case in an attempt to deprive Arm of billions of dollars under our licence agreements, the jury’s verdict confirms that Arm operated in good faith under its technology licence agreement and its award of only two dollars confirms the merit of Arm’s arguments in the case,” Arm noted in an official statement.