Earlier in the semester, I posted about how Qualcomm may have been forbidden to ARM’s intellectual property to design Qualcomm CPU’s, largely on the basis of improper licensing. These concerns have been allayed for now, as a jury trial on this issue was declared a mistrial (and plaintiff ARM’s efforts to seek an injunction against Qualcomm from selling anything with ARM IP therein thwarted).
The case has broad implications for the entire semiconductor industry. While large companies like Intel are mostly vertically integrated, most companies still rely on licensing technologies from other companies for use in their own products. Other industry players like Apple, Microsoft, Google, AMD, and NVidia, who all either make their own custom processors (not just CPUs) or have interest in doing so, may well be affected by the precedent established in this case. And as the supply chain disruptions induced by COVID-19 have shown, the world is increasingly reliant on embedded chips in virtually every conceivable facet of necessity vital to the modern existence.
Copyright & Social Media
Communications Law
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