Arm Holdings Plc is canceling a license that allowed longtime partner Qualcomm Inc. to use Arm intellectual property to design chips, escalating a legal dispute over vital smartphone technology.Arm, based in the UK,

Qualcomm is the company behind the chips found in smartphones, laptops and many other devices we use daily. But it may soon lose its license to use technology developed by its partner Arm, a move that could have enormous consequences for the tech world.

Any company that makes Arm chips must license technology from Arm Holdings plc, the British company that develops the instruction set. Companies can license the instruction set and create their own CPU designs or license one of Arm's ready-made Cortex CPU core designs to incorporate into their own chips.