Arm sure picked its moment to fire a return salvo in its legal battle with Qualcomm: right in the middle of the latter's latest Snapdragon processor launch.

The Softbank-owned chip designer filed a [1]response [PDF] on Tuesday to Qualcomm's earlier counterclaim against Arm. That filing will have landed on the first day of Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit, in which the American goliath [2]unveiled its next flagship processor: the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which is driven by Arm-provided CPU cores.

Arm [3]sued Qualcomm in the US in August over a CPU licensing dispute, and Qualcomm [4]shot back with surprising allegations that, among other things, Arm was being greedy by demanding more money from Qualcomm and retaliating against Qualcomm's opposition to Nvidia's [5]doomed merger with Arm. Also, that Arm was radically shaking up its licensing model to the detriment of Qualcomm and others.

[6]

Qualcomm – a big Arm customer itself – claimed the British chip shop was privately making it known to the semiconductor world that Arm intended to cut off chip designers, such as Qualcomm, from its CPU blueprints. Rather, according to the Snapdragon maker, Arm intended to work directly with (and invoice for royalties) the manufacturers of devices that use Arm-based processors.

[7]

[8]

See Register passim for the details.

[9]Qualcomm faces fresh competition in world of Arm-based Windows PCs

[10]How AMD, Intel, Nvidia are keeping their cores from starving

[11]Softbank boss Masayoshi Son devotes himself to growing Arm for the next few years

[12]Arm reports record royalties but total revenues slide

Arm is having none of these accusations, and stressed in its filing that its complaint is simple. According to Arm, when Qualcomm bought startup Nuvia – which was an Arm licensee – Qualcomm should have asked Arm's permission to absorb Nuvia's custom Arm-compatible CPU cores. It did not do so, Arm says. Qualcomm claims Arm wanted to use that moment to extract greater royalties, which Qualcomm seeks to resist. Qualcomm also asserts that the fine print of the licenses involved did not require Qualcomm to ask for permission.

So we have Arm saying the Nuvia license required Arm's permission for Qualcomm to use the designs it acquired with Nuvia And Qualcomm saying it didn't. Of course the licenses are secret and so far redacted in public court filings.

"There is no uncertainty that Arm's consent was required but not obtained for the transfer of Nuvia's rights, including through Qualcomm's acquisition of the company," Arm stated in its latest filing.

[13]

"Faced with Qualcomm's refusal to respect Arm's licenses, Arm brought this lawsuit to protect its rights … and the Arm technology ecosystem," the filing added. "These facts, not any misguided allegations about prior merger issues or purported changes in Arm's business model, are the reason and basis for Arm's claims."

An Arm spokesperson told us on Tuesday evening, "Qualcomm's counterclaim is nothing more than a desperate attempt to distract from the core issue: the company's blatant violation of the terms of the Nuvia license agreement and continued use of unlicensed Arm-based technology.

"As we've said before, Arm is focused on protecting the Arm ecosystem and partners who rely on our intellectual property and innovative designs, and we are seeking to enforce Qualcomm's obligation to destroy and stop using the Nuvia designs that were derived from Arm's technology."

[14]

As to Qualcomm's claims that Arm was dramatically shifting its business model, the spokesperson added:

The allegations by Qualcomm of changes to Arm's business model are misinformed, misleading and intended to distract Arm's customers from the reality that Qualcomm has misappropriated Arm's technology in violation of the express terms of the relevant contracts. Access to essential technology will not be limited, and Arm will continue to work with, and provide our technology to, both semiconductor companies and OEMs.

Spokespeople for Qualcomm were not able to comment on the latest filing. ®

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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/11/16/pacer_arm_qualcomm.pdf

[2] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/15/qualcomm_snapdragon_8_gen_2/

[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/31/arm_sues_qualcomm/

[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/01/qualcomm_arm_cpu/

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/08/arm_cancels_sale_to_nvidia/

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y3TCzpI59v6cy8nBUktqKQAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

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[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/16/qualcomm_arm_windows/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/14/amd_intel_nvidia_ram_bandwidth/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/14/softbank_boss_devotes_himself_to/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/11/arm_q2_fiscal_2022/

[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y3TCzpI59v6cy8nBUktqKQAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

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[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/