Asetek Demands AMD Cease Sales Of Fury X On Infringement Claims

Megalith

Megalith

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The company has also reportedly sent cease and desist letters to Gigabyte in regard to its GTX 980 Water Force. Thanks for those who sent this in.

…the cooling manufacturer has expanded its legal pursuit of products allegedly infringing upon patents. The company has now issued Cease & Desist orders to AMD over the sale of its liquid-cooled R9 Fury X. This news coincides with additional Asetek-dispatched C&Ds that AIB partner Gigabyte halt sales of its WaterForce video cards, a development we predicted would happen in a previous write-up.
 
Sorry but I fail to see how this is AMD's problem, they do not make that cooler, they simply use it and it's outsourced from another company. Think I would return to sender with attached note of "Gent Bent" personally.
 
Vercinaigh said:
Sorry but I fail to see how this is AMD's problem, they do not make that cooler, they simply use it and it's outsourced from another company. Think I would return to sender with attached note of "Gent Bent" personally.
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Same for Gigabyte.
 
Hmm, AMD should backcharge the retrofits necessary and damages from lost sales to CoolerMaster then.

If CoolerMaster is still solvent...

Full water is really the way to go anyways.
 
Yakk said:
Hmm, AMD should backcharge the retrofits necessary and damages from lost sales to CoolerMaster then.

If CoolerMaster is still solvent...

Full water is really the way to go anyways.
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Gigabyte too, that's pretty much my thoughts. It's not really anything to do with AMD nor Gigabyte here, this is all on CoolerMaster to handle. And only if they lost their case against Aestek (Did they? I didn't pay attention)
 
Vercinaigh said:
Gigabyte too, that's pretty much my thoughts. It's not really anything to do with AMD nor Gigabyte here, this is all on CoolerMaster to handle. And only if they lost their case against Aestek (Did they? I didn't pay attention)
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Aestek won an injunction against Cooler Master, who of coarse right away filed an appeal. http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150922006552/en/ASETEK-%E2%80%93-Court-Confirms-Judgement-Increases-Damages

Aestek is probably is probably hurrying to see if they can get anything else before the appeal gets heard. Shaking the tree to see if anything falls, so to speak.
 
yeah, I would think AMD and Gigabyte are just 3rd parties here. It would be like taking a consumer to court and making them throw it away. They will probably be able to keep selling everything they have purchased from CM.

on the flip side, the coolers from CM being sold can be stopped which in turn ultimately stops AMD and GB from selling anymore of those boards until they get a plan Bar in place to replace them.
 
I havent been following this.

Can someone tell me what it is about Asetek's patents that they are infringing? It would seem to me that a water-cooling loop has been common knowledge with nothing complicated or patent-able about ti for at least a 100 years now.

This seems a lot like patent trolling to me.
 
Zarathustra[H];1042014068 said:
I havent been following this.

Can someone tell me what it is about Asetek's patents that they are infringing? It would seem to me that a water-cooling loop has been common knowledge with nothing complicated or patent-able about ti for at least a 100 years now.

This seems a lot like patent trolling to me.
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Asetek owns the patent for any self-contained computer liquid cooler with a pump/reservoir built into the waterblock. Swiftech and EK got around this by integrating the pump and res into the radiator.
 
mrluckypants96 said:
Asetek owns the patent for any self-contained computer liquid cooler with a pump/reservoir built into the waterblock. Swiftech and EK got around this by integrating the pump and res into the radiator.
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Hmm.. What about CoolIT? They manufacture AIO coolers with pumps in the waterblock...

That, and I can't believe anyone gave them a patent for that. Integrating the pump into the water block hardly seems like a particularly novel improvement over existing closed loop eat exchanges.


it seems to me this is a patent that never should have been granted.
 
Zarathustra[H];1042014106 said:
Hmm.. What about CoolIT? They manufacture AIO coolers with pumps in the waterblock...

That, and I can't believe anyone gave them a patent for that. Integrating the pump into the water block hardly seems like a particularly novel improvement over existing closed loop eat exchanges.


it seems to me this is a patent that never should have been granted.
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Well, it's a bit more specific than that exactly: http://www.google.com/patents/US8245764

But both CoolIT and Asetek have been making liquid coolers since before that patent was granted.

Anyways, Asetek got the patent and immediately sued CoolIT, and won nearly $2 million in "damages": http://www.asetek.com/press-room/ne...onclusion-of-lawsuit-with-coolit-systems-inc/

It's kinda dumb...
 
This is what happens when you codify into law a disregard for prior art, and go strictly to the first to file for patent strategy. It practically begs for companies to patent troll. And reduces the ability to overturn undeserved patents.
 
illli said:
Asetek is starting to turn into a patent troll.
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If they came up with the pump in the block and patented it, they have a right to defend it if a company uses it to make $. Corsair makes them since they haven't been sued they are probably paying a license fee to use the patent.
 
I don't post often, hell I barely check here any longer however this bit of BS that Asetek is trying to pawn off deserved something said.

I just took a quick look at the "Patents" and judging by what I am seeing they are basically claiming to have invented every water cooling system now or previously available...

Same crap that RAMBUS tried to pull on JEDEC and the rest of the computing world...

Jackasses...
 
Arbit3r said:
If they came up with the pump in the block and patented it, they have a right to defend it if a company uses it to make $. Corsair makes them since they haven't been sued they are probably paying a license fee to use the patent.
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I think the waterblock that Corsair uses in their kits are made by Asetek.
 
IMO, Asetek should be given a patent specifically for their waterblock/pump design, that's fine. But they should not be given a general patent that covers any waterblock with a pump in it. That is just very dumb. Other companies may have their own design on how to embed a pump in the waterblock, as long as they do not copy Asetek they should be allow to do so. Pump in a waterblock is just too generalized.
 
I wonder if anyone has a patent on heating a house with a hot air system where the blower is connected to the furnace. I could patent that. Or using a chimney to exhaust waste gases above the top of the roofline. I could patent that. Basically, they gave Asetek a patent on something that other people were already using. So all we have to do is look around for commonly made things that haven't ever been patented, and apply for a patent, right?
 
nightfly said:
I wonder if anyone has a patent on heating a house with a hot air system where the blower is connected to the furnace. I could patent that. Or using a chimney to exhaust waste gases above the top of the roofline. I could patent that. Basically, they gave Asetek a patent on something that other people were already using. So all we have to do is look around for commonly made things that haven't ever been patented, and apply for a patent, right?
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Pretty much... Doesn't always work though... Just ask nvidia about (re-)inventing the GPU...:rolleyes:

Basically it looks like Cooler Master's lawyers were either incompetent, or the judge was clueless.
 
Hornet said:
IMO, Asetek should be given a patent specifically for their waterblock/pump design, that's fine. But they should not be given a general patent that covers any waterblock with a pump in it. That is just very dumb. Other companies may have their own design on how to embed a pump in the waterblock, as long as they do not copy Asetek they should be allow to do so. Pump in a waterblock is just too generalized.
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It may be highly generalized, however that doesn't automatically make the patent invalid. Casual water cooling never took off until 5 or 6 years ago when these AIO designs came around. The design seems obvious now, however no on monetized it all through the 90s and early parts of the 2000s. So should the first company to patent this market defining idea just let everyone do it?
 
Vercinaigh said:
Sorry but I fail to see how this is AMD's problem, they do not make that cooler, they simply use it and it's outsourced from another company. Think I would return to sender with attached note of "Gent Bent" personally.
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AMD knowingly partnered with a company that was infringing Asetek's patents, they are definitely in the wrong here.
 
cocdod said:
AMD knowingly partnered with a company that was infringing Asetek's patents, they are definitely in the wrong here.
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What if Cooler Master misled AMD (and Gigabyte) about the custom AIO cooler?

What if the coolers in question do not violate Asetek's patent?
 
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