Arm to Qualcomm: See you in court? Oh yes, please

Doesn't quite confirm eight-week license cancellation deadline, but does strap on the gloves

The Arm/Qualcomm spat just got a little spicier, after the UK chip designer repeated its allegation the US SoC giant has breached its licenses.

Arm's salvo came after it yesterday reportedly warned Qualcomm it will cancel licenses to use its chip designs in eight weeks if a dispute is not resolved.

In response to that threat, Qualcomm told The Register: "This is more of the same from Arm – more unfounded threats designed to strongarm a longtime partner, interfere with our performance-leading CPUs, and increase royalty rates regardless of the broad rights under our architecture license."

Now Arm has responded, as follows:

"Following Qualcomm's repeated material breaches of Arm's license agreement, Arm is left with no choice but to take formal action requiring Qualcomm to remedy its breach or face termination of the agreement. This is necessary to protect the unparalleled ecosystem that Arm and its highly valued partners have built over more than 30 years. Arm is fully prepared for the trial in December and remains confident that the Court will find in Arm's favor."

That's not quite confirmation of the reported eight-week deadline. But it is confirmation that Arm believes it has a case against Qualcomm.

The matter centers on the Oryon cores Qualcomm acquired along with an outfit called Nuvia. Oryon tech is at the heart of Qualcomm's chips for PCs and next-gen smartphones.

But Arm alleges the licenses it agreed to with Nuvia aren't usable by Qualcomm. Given that Nuvia was all about building custom cores on Arm foundations, the upcoming trial in December could set precedents for how chip design IP can be used.

At stake is Qualcomm's ability to differentiate its products, and Arm's business model of licensing its IP.

The stakes are higher than ever, given that the backers of the RISC-V ISA yesterday took steps to improve standardization, and reduce fragmentation, in that ecosystem.

So while these dueling PR announcements seem kind of dry, December's court battle could shape tech for years to come. ®