Arm Sues Qualcomm for Trademark Infringement, Breach of License

Arm is suing Qualcomm for trademark infringement and breach of license agreements related to its recent acquisition of chip design company Nuvia.

Qualcomm acquired Nuvia(Opens in a new window) last year for $1.4 billion, pointing to the company’s “world-class CPU design team” and “industry-leading expertise in high performance processors” as reasons for the purchase. However, as Reuters reports(Opens in a new window), Arm isn’t happy about the chip designs Nuvia developed being used by Qualcomm.

Arm claims its approval would be required before the Nuvia designs/technology could be transferred to Qualcomm, and no approval has been given. In fact, Arm states it terminated Nuvia’s licenses back in March. With that in mind, Arm wants Qualcomm to destroy the designs.

In a statement(Opens in a new window) regarding the lawsuit, Arm said:

“Arm is filing this claim to protect Arm, our partners, and the unparalleled ecosystem we have built together. Arm and its partners have invested billions of dollars to create industry-leading intellectual property. Because Qualcomm attempted to transfer Nuvia licenses without Arm’s consent, which is a standard restriction under Arm’s license agreements, Nuvia’s licenses terminated in March 2022. Before and after that date, Arm made multiple good faith efforts to seek a resolution. In contrast, Qualcomm has breached the terms of the Arm license agreement by continuing development under the terminated licenses. Arm was left with no choice other than to bring this claim against Qualcomm and Nuvia to protect our IP, our business, and to ensure customers are able to access valid Arm-based products.”

In response, Ann Chaplin, General Counsel of Qualcomm said, “Arm’s complaint ignores the fact that Qualcomm has broad, well-established license rights covering its custom-designed CPU’s, and we are confident those rights will be affirmed.”

Nuvia was founded by former Apple chip architects and licensed Arm’s underlying chip architecture rather than computing cores, which is what Qualcomm licenses. Qualcomm was planning to use Nuvia’s CPUs across a wide range of product categories including smartphones, laptops, and advanced driver assistance systems, which this legal action would scupper if Arm wins.

Qualcomm views Nuvia as an opportunity to do the equivalent of what Apple has achieved with its M-series processors—differentiate itself from the competition and control every aspect of new chip designs. It would also allow Qualcomm to become a major player in the laptop market by launching Windows laptops powered by Nuvia/Qualcomm CPUs.

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