A federal jury in Delaware determined on friday that Qualcomm did not violate its agreement with Arm by acquiring Nuvia in 2021, a startup founded by three former Apple engineers. As previously reported by Bloomberg and ReutersThe decision stems from a two-year legal battle that accused Qualcomm of misusing chip designs that Arm granted to Nuvia before its acquisition.
Despite achieving a victory for Qualcomm, the jury could not determine whether Nuvia violated its agreement with Arm, meaning the case can be retried. “I don’t think either side had a clear victory or would have had a clear victory if this case were tried again,” U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika said, according to Reuters.
In 2022, Arm began a legal battle after Qualcomm continued to pay its existing royalties to Arm, which were allegedly much lower than what Nuvia paid. After the two failed to reach an agreement, Arm argued that the designs licensed to Nuvia were no longer valid and that Qualcomm should destroy the technology created with them.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 at Decoder This week, Arm CEO Rene Haas couldn’t share much about the lawsuit, but said, “The principles on which we brought the claim have not changed.”
The jury ultimately sided with Qualcomm after seeing internal Arm documents that estimate Arm could have lost $50 million in revenue as a result of the Nuvia acquisition. according Reuters. This 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 reported.
“The jury has vindicated Qualcomm’s right to innovate and affirmed that all of the Qualcomm products at issue in the case are protected by Qualcomm’s contract with ARM,” Ann Chaplin, Qualcomm’s general counsel and corporate secretary, said in a statement. sent by email to The edge. “We will continue to develop world-class, performance-leading products that benefit consumers around the world, with our incredible custom Oryon ARM-compatible CPUs.”
The edge He contacted Arm for comment but did not immediately receive a response.