A military lawsuit against Qualcomm ends in a false and favorable ruling for Qualcomm

Arm Holdings sued Qualcomm for allegedly breaching a licensing agreement. But a jury today found they could not reach a verdict on one of the charges and found for Qualcomm on another.

The Army sued Qualcomm after Qualcomm acquired Army licensee Nuvia for $1.4 billion. The jury could not reach an agreement on whether Nuvia breached its license agreement, but also said that Qualcomm did not breach Nuvia's license with Arm.

“We are pleased with today's decision,” Qualcomm said in a statement. “The jury has upheld Qualcomm's right to innovate and determined that all Qualcomm products at issue protected by Qualcomm's contract with ARM. We will continue to develop world-class performance products that benefit consumers around the world, with our amazing custom CPUs that comply with Oryon ARM.”

The jury said that Qualcomm had licensed its central processor chips. Arm shares were down in after-hours trading, while Qualcomm shares were up slightly. The case held in the US federal court in Delaware could be tried again.

The jury also found that Qualcomm's chips, created using Nuvia's own technology, are properly licensed under Nuvia's agreement with the Army. That means Qualcomm can continue to sell them. These chips are helping Qualcomm move into the personal computer market.

In a statement, Arm said, “We are disappointed that the jury was unable to reach a consensus on the claims. We plan to seek an appeal due to the jury deadlock. From the very beginning, our top priority has been protecting Arm's IP and the unparalleled ecosystem we've built with our valued partners over more than 30 years. As always, we are committed to fostering innovation in our rapidly changing marketplace and serving our partners as we advance the future of computing.”