Arm sues Qualcomm in an attempt to destroy purchased Nuvia chips

Why is it important: arm, ltd. filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm, alleging that the wireless technology leader violated licensing agreements and committed trademark infringement following last year’s acquisition of Nuvia. The lawsuit seeks an injunction against Qualcomm, requiring them to destroy any designs developed under Nuvia’s previous licensing agreements with Arm. The ruling in Arm’s favor could thwart Qualcomm’s latest attempts to re-enter the chip design and manufacturing space.

demand stems from Nuvia’s special architecture licenses obtained from Arm in 2019, which allowed the startup to build Arm-compatible processor cores. According to Arm, the rights are non-transferable, making them unusable by Qualcomm following its Nuvia acquisition in 2021. The formal license termination in 2022 required Qualcomm to destroy and stop using any technology stemming from pre-existing agreements.

Qualcomm General Counsel Ann Chaplin denied the allegations. She states that the company has every right to continue its efforts to develop processors – efforts that have continued even before the deal with Nuvia.

“Arm has no right, contractual or otherwise, to attempt to interfere with Qualcomm or Nuvia innovation. Arm’s complaint ignores the fact that Qualcomm has broad, well-established licensing rights covering its custom-designed processors, and we are confident these rights will be upheld.”

Despite the scandal, the fact remains that Qualcomm still has existing agreements with Arm. The company is now able to develop its own kernels thanks to the Armv9 license that goes with Arm. In addition, the Snapdragon mobile processor lineup now uses Arm-designed standard cores as part of its architecture.

The relationship between Qualcomm and Arm has been on edge since the acquisition of Nuvia. Sources close to Qualcomm suggest that the company’s buyout and desire to return to the processor market is directly related to its view of the stagnation of Arm technology and lack of innovation. As a result, Qualcomm acquired a Santa Clara-based silicon developer intending to create a competing product line while reducing its reliance on Arm’s technology offerings.

The lawsuit could deprive Qualcomm of its ability to immediately compete with Arm, Intel, AMD, and other processor makers. Qualcomm income call Earlier this year, it was claimed that its laptop, which competes with Apple’s M-class processors, should be released in late 2023. Judging by Nuvia’s design, CPU availability will no doubt be negatively impacted if the court grants Arm’s claims.