Over the past number of year Asetek has been hunting down all of those who would infringe on their liquid cooling patents, having already successfully taken a large number of all in one liquid coolers out of the US market, most notably Swiftech's H220 liquid cooler.
In a very recent case against Cooler Master for their use of a coldplate mounted liquid cooling loop, a patented Asetek design, Cooler Master was told by a US district court jury that they must pay a 14.5% damages fee on all Cooler Master Liquid coolers already sold in the US and must cease shipping the infringing products.
Cooler Master demanded that a new trail be carried out and that a judgement be made a matter of law by a Judge, and was met by an increased damages fee of 25.375% for products which have already been shipped, which will affect all infringing products sold beginning January 1st. Cooler Master still have the ability to appeal this decision.
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If the Cooler Master cooler used in AMD's R9 Fury X GPU is affected by this lawsuit it will not be able to be shipped by Cooler Master any more in the US, meaning that AMD will have a difficult time creating more of the GPU. Perhaps this may force AMD to adope a new reference design for the GPU, but right now we can only guess as to what that would be.
This places a dangerous precedent on the PC industry as many other companies have created their own all-in-one water cooling products and any of those that similar to Asetek's design may meet the same fate as Cooler Master if they are selling in the US or EU markets.
Right now it is not entirely clear what additional products will be affected by this court ruling, but it is worth noting that AMD's R9 Fury X is cooler is a Cooler Master made all-in-one Liquid cooler that uses a cold plate mounted design.
Bah, AIOs are for newbs.
So, with a little research, AMD would have known about these lawsuits over this AIO design?
One wonders why they would risk using it?
So, with a little research, AMD would have known about these lawsuits over this AIO design?
One wonders why they would risk using it?
Except, I'm a newb, and I wanted an AIO cooler....
Haha....
Why didn't you post the relevant part?
I would think Cooler Master will eventually pay up and license and nothing will happen. Other than them paying up...
Because it would soften the blow of his AMD fear-mongering, resulting in not getting the impact he desires (yet another thread for talking about how AMD is dead).
Cooler Master has been told by a court that they can no longer sell numerous versions of their AIO liquid coolers in the US. Cooler Master is the provider of the AIO cooler on the Fury X. How were you not able to understand how this could be a problem for AMD?
Asetek doesn't do licenses.
The lawsuit between Cooler Master and Asetek started back in 2013, so hopefully AMD would have seen this coming and made sure to buy a sufficient stock of the cooler. Of course this would assume that AMD displayed foresight and proper planning, arguably not their strongest side.
The misinformation floating around the internet because of that OC3D post is astounding. The original editorial was posted by GamersNexus here
The TLDR:
- Asetek sued Coolermaster America and won. Coolermaster America claimed to have completely stopped selling the infringing products and was ordered to pay a 14.5% royalty on all products sold by Coolermaster America in the US. This came out out to ~$400,000.
- Coolermaster was still selling products in the US despite their claims and wasn't including them in the court totals.
- Asetek took Coolermaster back to court for enhanced damages (25.375% of all products sold in the US since January 1st 2015). Asetek won this.
- Asetek also won an injunction banning the listed products from sale in the US.
- The cooler on the Fury X is very similar to the Seidon 120V (which is part of the successful injunction). This means it could fall under the injunction and might also be banned.
- Asetek has not asked for any royalties from AMD and all of this is still speculation.
Court Documents:
Excerpt:
(1) As used herein, "Infringing Products" shall mean the following Cooler Master products: Seidon 120M, Seidon 120XL, Seidon 240M, Seidon 120V, Seidon 120V Plus, Nepton 140XL, [Nepton 280L], Glacer 240L, and products not more than colorably different from them.(2) CMI USA, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliated companies (collectively defined as "CMI"), as well as CMI's successors, *3131assigns, officers, directors, agents, servants, employees, representatives and attorneys, and those persons in active concert or participation with them who receive notice of the order are hereby immediately and permanently restrained and enjoined, pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 283 and Fed. R. Civ. P. 65(d), from making, using, offering for sale or selling in the United States, or importing into the United States, or causing to be made, used, offered for sale, or sold in the United States, or imported into the United States, the Infringing Products.(3) Cooler Master Co., Ltd. and its subsidiaries and affiliated companies (collectively defined as "Cooler Master"), as well as Cooler Master's successors, assigns, officers, directors, agents, servants, employees, representatives and attorneys, and those persons in active concert or participation with them who receive notice of the order are hereby immediately and permanently restrained and enjoined, pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 283 and Fed. R. Civ. P. 65(d), from making, using, offering for sale or selling in the United States, or importing into the United States, or causing to be made, used, offered for sale, or sold in the United States, or imported into the United States, the Infringing Products.(4)
Yes, I do work for Asetek.
Isn't that, in itself, illegal? Look up FRAND licensing.
Coolermaster was especially lazy in their copying of the Asetek design. The components were literally interchangeable.
Unbelievable a patent like this holds up in court.
It's like mounting a fan to a heatsink. Mounting a pump to an engine block.