If you have a company will you use a design that will cause you an assured lawsuit?
Strangely, I made the very same comment years ago when Gunnar first told me about the Natami. He was quite confident that no such problem would arise. Whether that's true I cannot say, but at least any patent on the instruction set itself run out by now.
On the other hand, it's now Qualcomm, and yes, they are known for a very strict patent policy. )-:
Thus, if there are any IPs in it, they are probably not back from Motorola times, though IBM might claim them in worst case. Gunnar is AFAIK an IBM empolyee, and the typical statement in contracts is that IPs you generate in your spare time are with the employer. Probably not enforcable by German law, though.
So, while the instruction set itself is probably not quite the source of the problem, there might be other know-how in the design that may be "interesting" for the usual suspects.