US jury deadlocked in Arm trial against Qualcomm, still deliberating

(Reuters) -A jury in U.S. federal court in Delaware on Friday said it was deadlocked on one of the questions that it has been asked to resolve in Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARM)’ lawsuit against Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), but is still deliberating the two other questions before it.

Arm’s lawsuit against Qualcomm asks for the destruction of chip designs it acquired from Nuvia for $1.4 billion in 2021. Nuvia’s technology has become the basis of Qualcomm’s push into the personal computer market.

At stake in the case, in which Arm is suing its biggest customer, is the fate of Qualcomm’s expansion into new markets using Nuvia’s technology and whether Arm can continue to be viewed as a neutral player throughout the chip industry.

Nuvia and Qualcomm both had license agreements with Arm, and Qualcomm sought to transfer Nuvia’s designs to itself after buying the startup company. Arm objected that Nuvia needed its permission to do so and terminated Nuvia’s license, ticking off the legal battle.

The case requires a unanimous verdict from the eight-person jury on three questions. The first of those questions was whether Nuvia breached its agreement with Arm, and the jury said Friday it was deadlocked.

The jury said it is still debating the two other questions, which are whether Qualcomm breached Nuvia’s Arm license agreement and whether Qualcomm’s central processor designs are properly licensed under its own agreement with Arm.