U.S. Based Companies Sued For Heat Pipe CPU Coolers

digitalfreak said:
Companies that sue for patent infringement and lose should be require to pay 500% of the defendant's court costs.
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I'd personally vote for much harsher penalties for frivolous lawsuits, but damn that "cruel and unusual punishment" clause!
 
In ancient Greece if the jury decided in the favor of the defendent they took a second vote to determine if the lawsuit was frivolous. If it was the plaintif had to pay a penalty and all legal costs. I see no reason we couldn't do the same thing here.
 
WTF is a hall pass? Entitles them to use the bathroom and bypass a lawsuit? Damn I need one of those.
 
yea i would like to know that too WTF is a "hall pass"
 
at the wherefore part,

American Technologies "PRAYS" for judgement against the defendants.

haha thats exactly whats gonne happen they need to pray for it as in reality, = no way in hell.

LOL 1st time i've seen the word pray for judgement in a legal doc, so what religeon is doing this hearing, what if the judge is athiest haha good luck to them praying for it then.
 
SixtyWattMan said:
Here comes the coffee thing again. McDonald's was serving the coffee hot enough to give people 3rd degree burns, it was not consumable and flat out dangerous. The lady had 3rd degree burns over 6% of her body and had to stay in hospital for days to undergo skin grafting. She deserved every penny. If you're going to pick a stupid court case pick one you actually know something about.
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Furthermore, the poor old lady (she was in her 70s!!) only asked for reimbursement for medical costs (something like 15k). McDonalds flat out REFUSED to pay anything, which is why they got sued and then paid out millions of dollars as a punishment in forms of punitive damages.

It was a damn good case and not nearly as frivolous as the uninformed claim.
 
SixtyWattMan said:
Here comes the coffee thing again. McDonald's was serving the coffee hot enough to give people 3rd degree burns, it was not consumable and flat out dangerous. The lady had 3rd degree burns over 6% of her body and had to stay in hospital for days to undergo skin grafting. She deserved every penny. If you're going to pick a stupid court case pick one you actually know something about.
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cesium666 said:
Furthermore, the poor old lady (she was in her 70s!!) only asked for reimbursement for medical costs (something like 15k). McDonalds flat out REFUSED to pay anything, which is why they got sued and then paid out millions of dollars as a punishment in forms of punitive damages.

It was a damn good case and not nearly as frivolous as the uninformed claim.
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Thankyou for posting that. I get so sick and tired of people rolling over automatically in defense of corporations when someone sues them and wins with out first checking the actual facts of the case.
 
HALL PASS = In the business world = basically means we wont pay your for anything, but since you already do business with us, we will extend certain discounts to compensate for such details, aka newegg sells em discounted stuff in exchange for NOT filling copywrite agreements for money. Happens all the time under the table executive business.. Small fish personell are not usually privy to ever seeing these details, they just know x y z customer has a discount with them for items, never told its due to outsourced resonse aka infringement details, and the company infringed opon, looks the other way in order to get cheeper stuff for it, they pass on the law suit money to gain, cheeper parts so the cost eventually balances out, that they buy for thier business aka hall pass system.
 
jebo_4jc said:
if American Technology doesn't have the funds, they're probably set up on a contingent fee. If that's the case, the attorney there is an idiot
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Well, they probably don't have the money to go after someone like dell, or HP.
If the patent passes the litmus test with whichever presiding judge, they can use what ever fees are covered to go after much larger defendants. With the benefit of precedent on their side.

If anyone remembers the mess with ULTRA and modular cables. Although that was much clearer than this case.

Even though, they may be viewed as being patent trolls, I think they have a case. To us, it won't necessarily matter, we just may end up paying a dollar or two more for heat pipe based coolers.

The only thing that bothers me is that they waited so long before attempting to make a case. They should of set up relevant agreements once heat-pipe based coolers hit the market. I'm wondering when the patent expires, and have if they filed for an extension.
The patent is coming up on 10 years.

If they do win, and they gain judgments for retroactive sales, it would prove to be huge windfall. It should prove interesting.
 
Met-AL said:
Thankyou for posting that. I get so sick and tired of people rolling over automatically in defense of corporations when someone sues them and wins with out first checking the actual facts of the case.
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And she will never put the coffee there again! That's for damn sure! For or against the lady, that was stupid.
 
This lawsuit =
fail-bob-barker.jpg
 
I think every one affected should flie a class action suit for harassment, because that's all this lawsuit is.
 
cesium666 said:
Furthermore, the poor old lady (she was in her 70s!!) only asked for reimbursement for medical costs (something like 15k). McDonalds flat out REFUSED to pay anything, which is why they got sued and then paid out millions of dollars as a punishment in forms of punitive damages.

It was a damn good case and not nearly as frivolous as the uninformed claim.
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Didn't she put it in her lap?
 
While I haven't read in more detail yet this lawsuit reminds me of the bullshit lawsuits Monster Cables would pull by going after any company with "Monster" in their name...like some friggin' mini-golf place. Then they went after bluejeancables because of some patent bullshit. Well that was a huge mistake because the owner of that company was an ex-lawyer and told Monster Cable lawyers to suck it. Monster Cables filed all these frivolous lawsuits just to strike licensing deals with small businesses.

This whole thing just reeks of the same bullshit lawsuit to go after the little guy who can't afford to fight these assholes. I hope they do though.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Didn't she put it in her lap?
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She also regularly went to McDonalds because their coffee was hot and she liked it that way. It's not like she was a first-timer and didn't know it would be that hot.

I hope this case gets thrown out, it's ridiculous.
 
BillParrish said:
Even a $25/hour lawyer should be able to completely refute the plaintiffs claims with the references cited in the wiki in about 3 hours.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pipe

The little guys need to get on the phone to one another and hire one lawyer to represent them all and counter sue the shit out of the law company that presented the case and complain to the CA bar. I bet American Technology, Inc does not have a pot to piss in.


http://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/CorpSearch.aspx
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I like this :D
 
Dual said:
In ancient Greece if the jury decided in the favor of the defendent they took a second vote to determine if the lawsuit was frivolous. If it was the plaintif had to pay a penalty and all legal costs. I see no reason we couldn't do the same thing here.
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Off the top of my head, Canada, Germany, UK and New Zealand all have a "loser pays" system. Tort reform is proposed on an annual basis in the States, but lawyers make too much money in the current system so it gets shouted down right quick.
 
Thankfully we have the countersuit in place for such idiocy.

FrozenCPU will loose some of their time while the plaintiff will surely be out a good chunk to cover all the bills for lawyers on both sides.
 
KOOLTIME said:
HALL PASS = In the business world = basically means we wont pay your for anything, but since you already do business with us, we will extend certain discounts to compensate for such details, aka newegg sells em discounted stuff in exchange for NOT filling copywrite agreements for money. Happens all the time under the table executive business.. Small fish personell are not usually privy to ever seeing these details, they just know x y z customer has a discount with them for items, never told its due to outsourced resonse aka infringement details, and the company infringed opon, looks the other way in order to get cheeper stuff for it, they pass on the law suit money to gain, cheeper parts so the cost eventually balances out, that they buy for thier business aka hall pass system.
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I see...money under the table...ty
 
That's BS. One of the requirements for a patent to be able to be filed is that it has to be novel. And in 2002, Shuttle SFF PCs were already using heatpipes for their CPU coolers!

Someone beat American technologies to it in 1944. US Patent 2,350,348
 
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Regardless of whether or not the patent is valid, they are going after the wrong people. While you're technically allowed to bring a lawsuit against retailers and consumers of a product that violates a patent, the judge isn't likely to let it fly. They'd have a better shot if they went after the manufacturers.
 
NKDietrich said:
Regardless of whether or not the patent is valid, they are going after the wrong people. While you're technically allowed to bring a lawsuit against retailers and consumers of a product that violates a patent, the judge isn't likely to let it fly. They'd have a better shot if they went after the manufacturers.
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You still have to go through the hassle of appearing in court with your lawyer though.
 
The defendants need to band together and not only defend but countersue these idiots.

This is a good example of a frivilous lawsuit. A doctor cutting off the wrong leg is NOT a frivilous lawsuit. Nice of these bozos to provide us a true example that's easy to understand.
 
S0 I go over to MSI forums and ask them ? .who makes the heatpipe for my N275GTX. And the the forum modertor comes back and says ( why would you ask that question (they are talking about CPU's) I laughed and said I don't think they care what config it's in ! So who makes the heatpipe for my card ? nothing would not say ..I was just curious ?
 
somebody looking for a payday. most of the small companies will probably settle instead of trying to fight...
 
cesium666 said:
Furthermore, the poor old lady (she was in her 70s!!) only asked for reimbursement for medical costs (something like 15k). McDonalds flat out REFUSED to pay anything, which is why they got sued and then paid out millions of dollars as a punishment in forms of punitive damages.

It was a damn good case and not nearly as frivolous as the uninformed claim.
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McDonalds paid out nowhere near "millions".

I suggest you go and read the results of the case as well as what followed.
 
For those not extremely adept at reading patents, the basic concept of there patent is,

A heat pipe cooler with thermally conductive fluid, the heat pipe is then connected to a thick heat
transfer plate, this plate is connected directly to the PCB with notches cut into the the base
of the plate to fit to and directly over components attached to the PCB .

I'm not aware of many CPU coolers that would fall under this perse; since to be infringing on
this patent all conditions would need to be true. and most cpu coolers do not,

A. use liquid
B. connect directly to the PCB
C. cut in a way to cool other components through direct contact.

and none of them do all 3 items, I can think of only one product that would fit under this
patent directly, and it is not a CPU cooler .

besides that this patent fails to show prior art, on the many heat pipe cooling systems
that existed before, nor do they directly state what the difference in there patent is versus
said (not shown) prior art.

let alone the fact that they are going after retailers, something that they can do, but
unless the retailers are selling the allegedly infringing products under there own brand
name; they will not be allowed to sue for damages, all they can do is sue the retailers
to stop selling x-item(s)
 
Sounds like they are extorting from small companies
If it was valid, they should have no problem going after the big companies

I really hope each and every one of them will fight this retarded lawsuit :(
 
Arklight said:
McDonalds paid out nowhere near "millions".

I suggest you go and read the results of the case as well as what followed.
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"The jury awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages. This amount
was reduced to $160,000 because the jury found Liebeck 20 percent at
fault in the spill. The jury also awarded Liebeck $2.7 million in
punitive damages"
 
HeatPipe technology has been around since the 20s in one form or another, I mean, formula One cars use the same technology to cool their engine valves, so a patent is expired isn't it? Then the argument might be for heatsinks in general, I think there is no patent on that.
It seems like this is just frivolous misuse of the court system and that they should reinstate an old Roman law regarding frivolous lawsuits. If you were the plaintif's attorney and you lost the case, they would use a branding iron and put a letter on your forehead to let everyone know that you had taken a frivolous lawsuit in the interest of monetary gain . This cut down on wasted court time because no self respecting attorney would represent someone in such a lawsuit.
Also there is the concept in law of 'estopal' in which a rule or contract violated and yet unenforced for a long enough period of time is considered to be acceptable to the contract holder. What ever the case, if this is a class action then there should be a fund raiser of some kind and counsel provided to these guys. There should also be a counter suit of some kind. I'm sure that someone out there can come up with an interesting angle that has a better foothold in reality than the plaintif.
 
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jebo_4jc said:
might as well just buy something from them then :)

on second thought, it might still be wise cautionary move not to buy anything with heatpipes
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:cool: FrozenCPU is where I got my VenomousX and Scythe S-FLEX fan last month and it's also where I bought my Ultra 120 Extreme I use on my HTPC. I have also bought some replacement mouse gaming feet from them. I might even buy some Scythe S-FLEX fans from them to replace all the stock antec fans in my case from them in the next few months.
 
So I guess they're going after the weak e-tailers, then the strong one, then major electronic manufacturers then giants such an Intel and AMD? I bet every manufacturer of PC components has a heatpipe somewhere on one of their products.
 
If they can find examples of heatpipe coolers that predate the patent (2000) they'll have a hard time winning an infringement case.
 
Patent trolling Rambus style. The only real winners are the lawyers
 
That just sucks. The Patent system in our great USA is broken big time!
 
'invi[tus said:
and most cpu coolers do not,

A. use liquid
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You do realize there IS liquid in heatpipes on the CPU coolers, right?

Its a liquid with a real low boiling point. Those pipes don't work off of magic.
 
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