The US federal court sided with Qualcomm in its trial against ARM, saying that the licensing agreement between the two companies has not been violated, although there are still uncertainties around the situation. But at least for now, Qualcomm is off the hook.
The two companies entered a dispute after Qualcomm acquired the startup Nuvia, which also uses ARM’s architecture. According to ARM, Qualcomm should pay higher royalty fees since Nuvia is under Qualcomm, and they both use ARM’s patents for chip design.
Even though the judge ruled in favor of Qualcomm, she said this is not a clear victory as the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision on whether Nuvia breached its licensing agreement with ARM. This opens up the possibility of ARM pursuing another case in the future.
