There is absolutely zero chance that Qualcomm could exist without being able to protect its IP in court. The model of their licensing business is to do years of R&D, then spend years selling rights to the work product to pay for the next cycle of R&D. Cost of revenues for the licensing business (R&D) are out of sync with the sales that they later generate. Licensing revenue was 40% of QCOM's total revenue last quarter. How exactly do you suggest they make money by selling IP without a legal environment that protects their contracts and patents?

Same goes for ARM. Their entire business is making and licensing designs internationally. That's what they do. That's how they make money.

> The thing is, just macros, or verilog code alone is near useless without tons of documentation, spoonfeeding by ARM FAEs, and tooling support.

Looking at past cases, I think this is an extremely poor characterization of how infringement actually happens. More likely,

(A) customers (or former customers) use licensed technology for which they underpay (or refuse to pay); or

(B) competitors hiring engineers from customers or former customers to compete with the company.