Qualcomm scores major legal victory against Arm over chip designs

Investing.com — Qualcomm scored a major legal victory on Friday when a U.S. jury determined that the company didn’t violate its licensing agreement for UK-based Arm ‘s chip designs following its acquisition of Nuvia.

Arm had argued that Qualcomm should have renegotiated the existing agreement with Nuvia after purchasing the startup. The British chip designer wanted Qualcomm to destroy the designs it obtained through the acquisition. 

But Qualcomm contended that it already had a separate license for Arm technology that covered its work. Nuvia’s technology is crucial to Qualcomm’s push into the computer processor market.

The jury was unable to reach a consensus on whether Nuvia itself had breached its license agreement.

Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) was up 1.8% in afterhours trading Friday, while Arm Holdings ADR (NASDAQ:ARM) was down 1.7%.