Delaware jury awards Qualcomm $2 in Arm license dispute

what happened

A Delaware jury awarded Qualcomm $2 in nominal damages on Tuesday after concluding that Arm Holdings violated its architectural licensing deal with the chipmaker and deliberately tried to interfere with its operations, Newsmetry API and Seeking Alpha reported. Arm did not immediately reply to Reuters, while Seeking Alpha said the company had not answered its request for comment either.

Qualcomm said it was pleased with the verdict. A company spokesperson said the decision confirmed Arm had failed to meet its long-standing commitments and, together with Qualcomm’s earlier court victory, pointed to broader efforts to damage Qualcomm and its ecosystem. Qualcomm shares gained 2.5% on Tuesday, while Arm declined 2.2%; Newsmetry API reported that Arm was down more than 1% in afternoon trading.

The jury considered Qualcomm’s claims that Arm withheld software patches and tools, breached a pricing provision requiring Qualcomm to pay within 10% of the lowest price for Arm’s semiconductor designs, and tried to derail a deal with Meta by leaking a letter to Bloomberg in 2024. The bench portion of the case, partly involving the Arm v10 license, is expected to be decided within a few weeks. U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika presided over the Wilmington, Del., federal case and also handled the 2024 proceeding, when Arm failed to persuade jurors that Qualcomm had violated its license. Arm originally filed the lawsuit in 2022.

why it matters

The verdict initially favored Qualcomm in the stock market, but the judge still must rule on the remaining part of the dispute. That leaves the companies’ licensing conflict unresolved despite the jury’s decision.

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