Qualcomm Sued by Softbank’s Arm Over License Breach After Nuvia’s Acquisition

Qualcomm, the US-based semiconductor company, and its acquired chip design firm Nuvia has been sued by Arm, a chip technology firm owned by Softbank Group, on Wednesday. Arm has raised allegations against both Qualcomm and Nuvia over breach of license agreements and trademark infringement. Nuvia, founded by former Apple chip architects, was acquired by Qualcomm last year in a $1.4 billion (nearly Rs. 11,140) deal excluding working capital and other adjustments. The move came as a challenge to rivals Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

According to a blog post on the company's website, Arm is seeking an injunction in its lawsuit against Qualcomm. If approved, Qualcomm will have the contractual obligation to destroy designs that were developed under Nuvia's license agreements with Arm.

The lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. According to Arm, Qualcomm has transferred Nuvia's licenses without approval from Arm as “a standard restriction under the company's license agreements.”

Meanwhile, as per a Reuters' report, Qualcomm's General Counsel, Ann Chaplin, has stated, “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.”

To recall, Qualcomm acquired Nuvia last year in a $1.4 billion deal. The company wanted to design computing cores different from standard Arm designs, used by its rivals such as MediaTek.