{"id":27345,"date":"2024-10-06T23:56:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-06T15:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/?p=27345"},"modified":"2025-03-14T08:10:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T00:10:53","slug":"arm-and-qualcomms-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/10\/06\/arm-and-qualcomms-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Arm and Qualcomm\u2019s IP licensing lawsuit set to be settled"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #ffffff;color:#ffffff\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #ffffff;color:#ffffff\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/10\/06\/arm-and-qualcomms-lawsuit\/#Nuvia_acquisition\" >Nuvia acquisition<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/10\/06\/arm-and-qualcomms-lawsuit\/#ARM_interfered_with_it\" >ARM interfered with it<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/10\/06\/arm-and-qualcomms-lawsuit\/#The_relationship_between_ARM_and_Qualcomm\" >The relationship between ARM and Qualcomm<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/10\/06\/arm-and-qualcomms-lawsuit\/#The_impact_of_the_ARM_and_Qualcomm_cases\" >The impact of the ARM and Qualcomm cases<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/10\/06\/arm-and-qualcomms-lawsuit\/#ARM_disagrees_the_licensing_agreements_before_Qualcomm_acquired_Nuvia\" >ARM disagrees the licensing agreements before Qualcomm acquired Nuvia<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/10\/06\/arm-and-qualcomms-lawsuit\/#Points_of_dispute_between_the_two_sides\" >Points of dispute between the two sides<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/10\/06\/arm-and-qualcomms-lawsuit\/#ARM_has_bigger_picture\" >ARM has bigger picture<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/10\/06\/arm-and-qualcomms-lawsuit\/#The_situation_is_not_favorable_for_ARM\" >The situation is not favorable for ARM<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/10\/06\/arm-and-qualcomms-lawsuit\/#Conclusion\" >Conclusion<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/10\/06\/arm-and-qualcomms-lawsuit\/#Related_articles\" >Related articles<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Nuvia_acquisition\"><\/span>Nuvia acquisition<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The deterioration in the relationship between Arm and Qualcomm can be traced back to an acquisition deal three years ago. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qualcomm.com\/news\/releases\/2021\/01\/qualcomm-acquire-nuvia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">In 2021, Qualcomm announced that it would spend US$1.4 billion to acquire Nuvia, a chip design company that was founded only two years ago.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nuvia&#8217;s chip design can help it significantly improve the performance of next-generation CPUs and achieve major breakthroughs in new growth areas such as notebook computers and data centers. The outside world predicted at that time that after Qualcomm acquired Nuvia, it might usher in a performance explosion in the field of notebook processors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sure enough, Qualcomm released the Snapdragon X Elite processor at the Snapdragon Technology Summit in the fall of 2023. Its powerful performance and energy efficiency not only overwhelmed Intel&#8217;s Core 9, but even surpassed Apple&#8217;s own customized M3 processor. The Snapdragon X Elite processor also realized a generative AI landing terminal, laying the foundation for the subsequent launch of Copilot+ PC in cooperation with Microsoft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"ARM_interfered_with_it\"><\/span>ARM interfered with it<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The biggest threat to the popularity of Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors in Windows PCs comes not from competitor Intel, but from its partner, the intellectual property licensee of Qualcomm Snapdragon Over the past two years, Arm has been suing Qualcomm for breach of contract and patent infringement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_relationship_between_ARM_and_Qualcomm\"><\/span>The relationship between ARM and Qualcomm<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Qualcomm is Arm&#8217;s second largest source of revenue, and Arm is Qualcomm&#8217;s largest technology partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_impact_of_the_ARM_and_Qualcomm_cases\"><\/span>The impact of the ARM and Qualcomm cases<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If ARM wins the lawsuit, all Windows laptops using Qualcomm processors will be banned, and even Microsoft will not be immune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"ARM_disagrees_the_licensing_agreements_before_Qualcomm_acquired_Nuvia\"><\/span>ARM disagrees the licensing agreements before Qualcomm acquired Nuvia<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The real obstacle to Qualcomm\u2019s acquisition of Nuvia comes from Arm. In August 2022, Arm filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm and Nuvia in the Delaware court, accusing them of violating Arm&#8217;s licensing agreement. Arm announced the withdrawal of its licensing agreement with Nuvia and required Qualcomm not to use Nuvia\u2019s chip design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After Qualcomm acquires Nuvia, future chip designs will largely use customized computing cores designed by the latter, rather than using Arm&#8217;s public version architecture. After Qualcomm acquired Nuvia, it used Nuvia&#8217;s customized chip design without Arm&#8217;s consent, which violated the previous licensing agreement. Therefore, Arm has the right to revoke the licensing agreement and require Qualcomm to destroy chip products based on Nuvia. and pay compensation to ARM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Points_of_dispute_between_the_two_sides\"><\/span>Points of dispute between the two sides<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Arm hopes that chip manufacturers will use more of their own Cortex designs because the licensing fees that Arm can charge are much higher. But Qualcomm insists on using its own modified Nuvia platform, which signed an old agreement with a very low licensing fee. ARM was very dissatisfied with Qualcomm&#8217;s licensing fees after acquiring Nuvia, and Qualcomm did not intend to pay two licensing fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"ARM_has_bigger_picture\"><\/span>ARM has bigger picture<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, ARM had his own plans. Because the WOA (Windows on Arm) exclusive cooperation agreement between Microsoft and Qualcomm will expire in 2024, new chip giants may enter the market by then, and Qualcomm must seize the opportunity to seize market opportunities. When the exclusive cooperation period expires, not only Intel and AMD will launch their own AI PC chips, Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite will no longer be the only choice for Amou chips in the notebook field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For WOA, please see my post of &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/07\/16\/woa-windows-on-arm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How much potential does ARM&#8217;s WOA (Windows on ARM) has?<\/a>&#8220;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chip giants such as Nvidia, AMD, and MediaTek are already eager to try in this area. There are market rumors that Nvidia will cooperate with MediaTek to launch PC processors next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_situation_is_not_favorable_for_ARM\"><\/span>The situation is not favorable for ARM<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Developments on December 20, 2024: <strong><em>The jury found that Qualcomm did not breach the ARM architecture license agreement<\/em><\/strong>, which it granted to Nuvia for the purpose of developing custom ARM-based CPU cores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The jury also determined that Qualcomm&#8217;s existing architecture licensing agreement with ARM covers the continued development of customized CPU cores obtained from the acquisition of Nuvia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The jury was deadlocked, however, on whether Nuvia breached a licensing agreement with ARM when it was acquired by Qualcomm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ARM said it will seek a retrial in a litigation against Qualcomm Inc in a licensing dispute over its Snapdragon X chips after a federal jury sided with the chipmaker on two key issues but deadlocked on a third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Conclusion\"><\/span>Conclusion<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Because the case involves so many aspects and has a great impact on the entire industry, people in the industry unanimously believe that the two parties will reach a settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Note<\/strong>: In February 2025, Qualcomm announced that it had reached a settlement with ARM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"178\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/06\/Qa-Custom.jpg\" alt=\"Arm and Qualcomm\" class=\"wp-image-27349\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">credit: Ideogram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Related_articles\"><\/span>Related articles<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/10\/06\/arm-and-qualcomms-lawsuit\/\">Arm and Qualcomm\u2019s IP licensing lawsuit set to be settled<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/08\/01\/qualcomm-pc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Qualcomm PC might bring it back to glory<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/07\/24\/top-vendors-and-uses-of-gpu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Top vendors and uses of GPU<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/07\/16\/woa-windows-on-arm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How much potential does ARM&#8217;s WOA (Windows on ARM) has?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/06\/24\/ai-pc-supply-ecosystem\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">AI PC is changing the PC supply chain and ecosystem<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/07\/02\/asic-getting-bigger\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ASIC market is getting bigger, and related listed companies in the US and Taiwan<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/06\/20\/arm-relisted\/\">Arm relisted successfully and it&#8217;s ushering in its best days<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/01\/29\/how-arm-make-money\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How does the ubiquitous Arm make money?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/01\/29\/arm-acquired-by-nvidia\/\">Why nVidia failed to acquire ARM?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/06\/14\/small-language-models\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Importance of Small Language Models (SLM) in AI, how is Apple AI different from others?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/05\/01\/qualcomm-diversifies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Qualcomm diversifies success, no nonger highly dependend on phone<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/05\/25\/will-intel-go-bankrupt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Will Intel go bankrupt?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/10\/30\/how-does-intel-make-money-and-the-benefits-to-invest-in-it\/\">How does Intel make money? and the benefits to invest in it<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/11\/05\/intels-current-difficult-dilemma\/\">Intel&#8217;s current difficult dilemma<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/04\/22\/amd-make-money\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How AMD makes money? A rare case of turning defeat into victory<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/02\/05\/amd-jaw-dropping\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Why is AMD\u2019s performance so jaw-dropping?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/06\/07\/how-microsoft-makes-money-where-is-the-future\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How Microsoft makes money? Where is the future?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/08\/07\/personal-computer-tasteless\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Is Microsoft\u2019s personal computer computing department a tasteless one?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/04\/11\/us-artificial-intelligence\/\">Major artificial intelligence companies in US stocks market<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/07\/21\/4-technology-stocks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The rebirth and fall of 4 major technology stocks in 10 years<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Disclaimer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>The content of this site is the author\u2019s personal opinions and is for reference only. I am not responsible for the correctness, opinions, and immediacy of the content and information of the article. Readers must make their own judgments.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>I shall not be liable for any damages or other legal liabilities for the direct or indirect losses caused by the readers&#8217; direct or indirect reliance on and reference to the information on this site, or all the responsibilities arising therefrom, as a result of any investment behavior.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Because the intellectual property licensing lawsuit between Arm and Qualcomm involves too many aspects and has a great impact on the entire industry, industry insiders unanimously believe that the two parties will reach a settlement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[191,678,110],"tags":[348,556,41,3,417,169,209],"class_list":["post-27345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawsuits","category-ip-moats-and-competitive-advantages","category-semiconductor","tag-amd","tag-arm","tag-intc","tag-msft","tag-mtk","tag-nvda","tag-qcom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27345"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35407,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27345\/revisions\/35407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}