Qualcomm further adds in the counterclaim: “ARM has no right to demand additional royalties from Qualcomm’s customers. Qualcomm’s ALA provides Qualcomm with an exhaustive license, meaning that ARM is not entitled to go and ask for additional royalties from Qualcomm’s customers for those products for which ARM received royalties from Qualcomm.”
According to Qualcomm’s updated counterclaim, after 2024, Arm no longer intends to license its processors to semiconductor companies like Qualcomm under technology license agreements (TLAs). Instead, Arm will license only the device manufacturers. Arm is allegedly telling OEMs that the only way to get Arm-based chips will be to accept Arm’s new licensing terms. Qualcomm claims that Arm is lying to Qualcomm’s OEM partners about Qualcomm’s licensing terms.
Furthermore, Qualcomm claims that Arm is telling OEMs that semiconductor manufacturers will not be able to supply other components of their Arm-based SOCs. This includes GPUs, NPUs and ISPs. Arm appears to be effectively pooling its intellectual property with the processor’s intellectual property in a take-it-or-leave-it model. This means that Samsung’s licensing deal with AMD for GPU or Meditech with Imagination GPU is no longer allowed after 2024. Furthermore, neither of these companies could use their intellectual property or their internal NPUs, even though it is far superior to Arm’s .
According to the SEMIANALYSIS website, if this is true, it seems that Arm “is playing very dirty with their threats to Qualcomm and other original equipment manufacturers”. MediaTek, Samsung and other Arm partners should be very afraid. This step is going to accelerate the RISC-V roadmaps rapidly. It is also a marker of anti-competitive behavior. Nvidia has a guaranteed 20 year Arm license, so they’ll be fine. Apple obviously has great licensing terms because of their history with the ARM founders. Broadcom also has very favorable conditions so the one who will be hurt will be mainly Qualcomm.
“Since the filing of this complaint on August 31, 2022, ARM has persistently and unlawfully attempted to disrupt Qualcomm’s business and customer relationships by disseminating misinformation about the nature of Qualcomm’s ARM licenses to customers purchasing Qualcomm’s ARM-compatible cores and chipsets.”
“ARM undertook this misinformation campaign directly through its leadership and through the leadership of its owner, Softbank, acting on ARM’s behalf, in an attempt to harm Qualcomm, disparage its products, disrupt Qualcomm’s relationships with its customers, and create uncertainty where none exists.”
“ARM is trying to force customers to accept its direct license by falsely stating that Qualcomm will not be able to supply them with ARM-compatible chips starting in 2025 because Qualcomm’s ARM license agreements expire in 2024, that ARM will not extend its licenses with Qualcomm, and that ARM will not allow For Qualcomm to market products from 2025 onwards.”
Qualcomm further adds in the counterclaim: “ARM has no right to demand additional royalties from Qualcomm’s customers. Qualcomm’s ALA provides Qualcomm with an exhaustive license, meaning that ARM is not entitled to go and ask for additional royalties from Qualcomm’s customers for those products for which ARM received royalties from Qualcomm.”
For the full article
More on the subject:
Qualcomm may exit the field of ARM-based chips for servers
Softbank CEO: The ARM IPO should have been the main plan and not an alternative plan