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AMD R9 Fury X Could Be Impacted by Liquid Cooling Lawsuit
But the big name here really is Cooler Master. Asetek, the company that provides many of the industry's LCS coolers for Corsair and NZXT, had a win in a patent infringement case against Cooler Master (CMI) in 2014. Late last year Asetek took Cooler Master's parent company, CMI, to court for infringing its patents on all-in-one liquid coolers.
Asetek won the court case, with the jury unanimously ruling in favour of Asetek, and was awarded damages from Cooler Master at a 14.5 per cent royalty rate. CMI obviously thought it had grounds to appeal and demanded a new trial.
The court "denied CMI's demands, and instead substantially followed Asetek's requests and issued a permanent injunction barring CMI and its parent Cooler Master from selling certain infringing products into the Unites States". Another unfortunate upshot of CMI's re-trial is that the judge awarded Asetek enhanced damages at a 25.375 per cent royalty rate on all infringing products sold this year. CMI can and may decide to appeal again.
The following Cooler Master products are effected by the new court ruling:
- Seidon 120V / Seidon 120V Plus / Seidon 120M / Seidon 120XL / Nepton 140XL / Seidon 240M / Glacer 240L / Nepton 280L
The impact and effect of the trial could advance over Asetek and CMI. AMD's Radeon R9 Fury X graphics card features an all-in-one liquid cooler, made for AMD by Cooler Master. It remains to be seen what will happen to these graphics cards being marketed and sold in the US.
pimp_gimp
Senior Member
Posts: 6682
Joined: 2004-05-13
Senior Member
Posts: 6682
Joined: 2004-05-13
#5164380 Posted on: 09/26/2015 08:09 AM
Asetek pioneered the low-budget closed-loop systems way before Corsair, Coolermaster, Swiftech, and all these others had even released any sort of AIO water cooling system. They haven't exploited anyone and are just protecting what is rightfully theirs. If you look back they have managed to sell quite a few AIO's, because for a long time they were the only one available (and as such they could charge what they wanted and the first AIO systems cost quite a bit and did not perform much better than high-end aircooling that cost quite a bit less at the time). It's just in recent years that everyone else has begun to follow suite on their idea and release their own versions of that original idea Asetek started.
Have a look:
Asetek company milestones
Funnily enough I had never even heard of Asetek before all of the patent cases. The company certainly didn't do good work selling itself to home system builders, but did very good job exploiting other manufacturers who actually managed to sell their products. Maybe Asetek is a company with good research, good lawyers, but no businessmen?
Asetek pioneered the low-budget closed-loop systems way before Corsair, Coolermaster, Swiftech, and all these others had even released any sort of AIO water cooling system. They haven't exploited anyone and are just protecting what is rightfully theirs. If you look back they have managed to sell quite a few AIO's, because for a long time they were the only one available (and as such they could charge what they wanted and the first AIO systems cost quite a bit and did not perform much better than high-end aircooling that cost quite a bit less at the time). It's just in recent years that everyone else has begun to follow suite on their idea and release their own versions of that original idea Asetek started.
Have a look:
Asetek company milestones
Kaarme
Senior Member
Posts: 3378
Joined: 2013-03-10
Senior Member
Posts: 3378
Joined: 2013-03-10
#5164408 Posted on: 09/26/2015 10:53 AM
Yeah, I specifically mentioned Antec (the one I chose) and Corsair were the first closed loops I saw. I was also already educated of the fact it was the very Asetek who made the components for those two companies. However, it's only the company whose name is printed on the product who gets all the fame. Apple got the praise, Foxconn only got notoriety.
Maybe that's precisely why stores had nothing on their shelves, even if the stuff existed. Only when the later companies released their products, they weren't overpriced and thus the shops could sell them to the masses, not only to a few enthusiasts. Still today the three hardware shops I mostly use have nothing directly from Asetek. Because it probably won't sell enough to justify having it on their lists. It's a different story if Asetek makes parts for the brands that actually sell more, but the identity of the contract manufacturer isn't really relevant for the end user.
That is funny, since they are the originators of the product, but maybe you've heard of Corsair. As an owner of an old Asetek, I think they did a fine job selling it. So did all the manufacturers that licensed or rebranded them.
Yeah, I specifically mentioned Antec (the one I chose) and Corsair were the first closed loops I saw. I was also already educated of the fact it was the very Asetek who made the components for those two companies. However, it's only the company whose name is printed on the product who gets all the fame. Apple got the praise, Foxconn only got notoriety.
(and as such they could charge what they wanted and the first AIO systems cost quite a bit and did not perform much better than high-end aircooling that cost quite a bit less at the time).
Maybe that's precisely why stores had nothing on their shelves, even if the stuff existed. Only when the later companies released their products, they weren't overpriced and thus the shops could sell them to the masses, not only to a few enthusiasts. Still today the three hardware shops I mostly use have nothing directly from Asetek. Because it probably won't sell enough to justify having it on their lists. It's a different story if Asetek makes parts for the brands that actually sell more, but the identity of the contract manufacturer isn't really relevant for the end user.
NAMEk
Senior Member
Posts: 658
Joined: 2006-05-26
Senior Member
Posts: 658
Joined: 2006-05-26
#5164410 Posted on: 09/26/2015 10:57 AM
I've never said, that it's just because of the States, i said that it's greater chance that it's trolling if it's in US, it doesn't mean that outside of the States same things doesn't happen, it does, but less often.
Just because it's in the States doesn't necessarily mean it's trolling this isn't Apple patenting rounded corners.
I've never said, that it's just because of the States, i said that it's greater chance that it's trolling if it's in US, it doesn't mean that outside of the States same things doesn't happen, it does, but less often.
Noisiv
Senior Member
Posts: 8201
Joined: 2010-11-16
Senior Member
Posts: 8201
Joined: 2010-11-16
#5164412 Posted on: 09/26/2015 11:03 AM
This is what you said. Care to share your insight into specifics with us? Thanks.
I've never said, that it's just because of the States, i said that it's greater chance that it's trolling if it's in US, it doesn't mean that outside of the States same things doesn't happen, it does, but less often.
This is what you said. Care to share your insight into specifics with us? Thanks.
Patent trolling at it's finest.
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Senior Member
Posts: 259
Joined: 2013-09-27
That is funny, since they are the originators of the product, but maybe you've heard of Corsair. As an owner of an old Asetek, I think they did a fine job selling it. So did all the manufacturers that licensed or rebranded them.