A federal jury in Delaware scheduled for friday Qualcomm has not violated its agreement with Arm 2021 acquisition Nuvia, a startup founded by three former Apple engineers. As First reported by bloomberg And reutersThe decision stems from a two-year-long legal battle in which Qualcomm was accused of misusing the chip design arm it licensed to Nuvia before the acquisition.
Despite giving Qualcomm a victory, the jury could not determine whether Nuvia violated its agreement with Arm, meaning the case could be retried. U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika said, “I don't think either side would have a clear victory or a clear victory if this case were retried.” reuters,
In 2022, Arm started legal battle After Qualcomm continued paying its existing royalty fees to Arm, which were reportedly much lower than the amount paid by Nuvia. After the two failed to reach an agreement, Arm argued that the designs licensed to Nuvia were no longer valid, and that Qualcomm should destroy the technology created with them.
during an interview But decoder this weekArm CEO René Haas couldn't share much about the trial, but he did say, “The principles of why we filed the claim remain unchanged.”
The jury ultimately sided with Qualcomm after seeing Arm's internal documents, which estimated that Arm could lose $50 million in revenue as a result of the Nuvia acquisition, according to reutersThis week, Nuvia co-founder Gerard Williams also testified that the startup only used “one percent or less” of Arm technology in its finished technology. reuters informed,
“The jury has vindicated Qualcomm's right to innovate and confirms that all Qualcomm products in the case are protected by Qualcomm's contract with ARM,” Ann Chaplin, Qualcomm's general counsel and corporate secretary, said in an emailed statement. The Verge“We will continue to develop performance-leading, world-class products with our incredible Orion ARM-compliant custom CPUs that benefit consumers around the world.”
The Verge We reached out to Arm with a request for comment but did not immediately receive a response.