The in-house Oryon cores used in Qualcomm’s latest chipsets stirred up a lot of controversy, at least in the eyes of British chip design firm ARM, who took the San Diego company to court. However, its efforts did not bear fruit because an eight-man jury was unable to determine if Nuvia breached its licensing agreements. ARM was not yet ready to throw in the towel, stating that it wanted a retrial against Qualcomm, but during the latter’s earnings call, CEO Christiano Amon stated that the licensee’s plans to terminate its chip design agreements had been dropped.
After the Qualcomm and ARM trial, the judge stated that both companies should come to an agreement, which may have materialized behind closed doors
Back in October, ARM had threatened to terminate Qualcomm’s license agreement as the chipset manufacturer proceeded to use its in-house designs, which was only possible with the acquisition of Nuvia. ARM claims that Nuvia had breached its licensing agreements. Now, according to Reuters, when discussing the company’s first-quarter results, Chief Executive Christiano Amon said that ARM had withdrawn its attempts to revoke the license.
“Arm recently notified us that it was withdrawing its October 22, 2024 notice of breach, and indicated that it has no current plan to terminate the Qualcomm architecture license agreement.”
The reason behind this withdrawal is not mentioned in the report, but during the trial in December 2024, Court Judge Maryellen Noreika stated that she did not believe that any side had a clear victory or would have a clear victory if the case went to trial again. She also encouraged both parties to come to an agreement, as the first trial’s results likely mean that a repeat of the previous verdict will materialize if ARM goes after Qualcomm again.
It is possible that both companies have settled their differences behind closed doors, and perhaps Qualcomm appeased ARM by offering a higher licensing fee in exchange for a truce. Given this development, we will not be surprised if competitors like MediaTek also jump on the same bandwagon to try and develop Oryon-like cores for their future chipsets.
News Source: Reuters
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