A high-stakes legal showdown between two giants of the mobile industry reached a critical turning point, as a US jury found Arm breached its long-standing Architectural Licence Agreement (ALA) with Qualcomm.

According to a statement by Qualcomm released yesterday (13 October), a jury in a US district court determined Arm failed to honour its contractual commitments and intentionally acted to disrupt Qualcomm’s business operations.

The decision marks a major escalation in the bitter dispute between the semiconductor heavyweights. The verdict follows what Qualcomm characterised as a prior court win last year in the ongoing legal battle over custom CPU architectures, licensing rights, and the deployment of advanced silicon design.

Qualcomm framed the outcome as a defence of open market competition and a validation of its technology roadmap.

“Together with Qualcomm’s prior court victory, this outcome further exposes Arm’s broader intentions to harm Qualcomm and its ecosystem,” Qualcomm said. “This outcome is a victory for innovation and competition, and we remain focused on developing and delivering industry-leading semiconductor products including our Oryon CPUs to customers and consumers worldwide.”

While Qualcomm claimed victory, Arm stated it yesterday it was “pleased with jury’s decision today finding for Arm on four claims and awarding only one dollar in damages on each of Qualcomm’s other two claims”.

“Despite Qualcomm’s pursuit of this case in an attempt to deprive Arm of billions of dollars under our licence agreements, the jury’s verdict confirms that Arm operated in good faith under its technology licence agreement and its award of only two dollars confirms the merit of Arm’s arguments in the case.”

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Qualcomm reached a second patent licensing deal in just under a fortnight through an agreement with Huawei which involves acquiring some of the Chinese vendor’s US-registered technologies.

The arrangement covers Huawei technologies involving compute, AI, networking and others. The same trio plus 5G are part of the overall patent cross-licensing deal.

Executives from each company praised the other’s portfolio and willingness to work together under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

Huawei chief IP officer Alan Fan said the licensing arrangement is testament to each company’s role in the global technology landscape.

Qualcomm’s “contributions to modern communication technologies” are “foundational”, he said.

For Qualcomm EVP and GM of its Technology Licensing unit John Han, the deal is validation of its work on 5G and a dedicated permit process for standards essential patents.

Han credited Huawei’s “continued innovation” and IP portfolio “in 5G and other technology fields”.

The agreement comes barely a fortnight after Qualcomm arranged continuity in a global licensing deal with Apple, which is scheduled to renew on 1 April 2027.

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