Arm Ltd, which is owned by Softbank Group Corp, this week sued Qualcomm and Qualcomm’s recently acquired chip design firm Nuvia for breach of license agreements and trademark infringement.
Stephen Nellis and Jane Lanhee Lee for Reuters:
Arm is seeking an injunction that would require Qualcomm to destroy designs developed under Nuvia’s license agreements with Arm. Arm alleged its approval was needed before these could be transferred to Qualcomm… If Arm’s effort is successful it would essentially unwind one of Qualcomm’s biggest strategic acquisitions in recent years…
Qualcomm bought Nuvia, founded by former Apple chip architects, to reboot its efforts to make custom computing cores that would be different from standard Arm designs used by rivals such as Taiwan chip designer MediaTek Inc.
One of Qualcomm’s first goals with Nuvia’s technology is to challenge Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc in the PC and laptop markets which they now dominate. Qualcomm acquired Nuvia shortly after Apple ditched Intel to begin using its own chips, which are also based on Arm technology, in its Mac[s].
MacDailyNews Take: If any company deserves to be sued, it’s Qualcomm.
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Shop The Apple Store at Amazon.