Qualcomm has announced that a US District Court granted it “complete victory” in the lawsuit brought by Arm back in 2022. The court dismissed the remaining claim in Arm’s lawsuit, and it also upheld the result of a December 2024 trial, in which a jury ruled that Qualcomm and its subsidiary Nuvia did not violate their licensing agreement with Arm.
If you’ll recall, Arm sued Qualcomm after the latter purchased Nuvia, which is also one of the companies licensing its technologies. It argued that since Qualcomm didn’t obtain the necessary permits to transfer Nuvia’s licenses, Nuvia breached their contract. In 2024, Arm canceled the architecture license allowing Qualcomm to use its intellectual property and standards for chip design.
This recent court victory allows Qualcomm to continue selling chips with designs developed by Nuvia, which power multiple devices, including Microsoft Surface laptops. “Our right to innovate prevailed in this case and we hope Arm will return to fair and competitive practices in dealing with the Arm ecosystem,” said Ann Chaplin, Qualcomm’s general counsel.
Arm, however, isn’t giving up. It “remains confident in its position in its ongoing dispute with Qualcomm,” it said in a statement, and will file an appeal to overturn the court’s decision. Meanwhile, Qualcomm said it’s looking forward to the trial for its own lawsuit against Arm, accusing the Softbank-owned company of breach of contract and a “pattern of conduct seeking to hinder innovation and better position [its] own products over its long-standing partners’.” It’s expecting a trial for that lawsuit to take place in March 2026.
