AMD And Gigabyte - Cease And Desist From Asetek – Demanding Suspension Of R9 Fury X And Gigabyte GTX

[LoadsaMoney]

Asetek sent the following statement to gamersnexus.net

“Asetek’s attorneys have recently sent cease and desist letters to Gigabyte, demanding that it cease selling Giga-Byte’s GEFORCE GTX 980 Water Force (sold under at least model number GV-N980WAOC-4GD) because it contains the Seidon 120M found by the court to infringe Asetek’s patents.

Asetek’s attorneys have also written a cease and desist letter to AMD, demanding that it stop selling its Radeon R9 Fury X product, because it infringes Asetek’s patents. Our attorneys have had some difficulty obtaining a Gigabyte GV-N98TXTREME W-6GD, but we expect to receive and analyze one very soon for infringement.”

http://wccftech.com/amd-gigabyte-asetek-cease-desist-fury-waterforce/

 

[thebennyboy]

I hope AMD and Gigabyte refuse to take them off sale. The infringement is by Cooler Master, not AMD or Gigabyte.

 

[Phixsator]

I hope AMD and Gigabyte refuse to take them off sale. The infringement is by Cooler Master, not AMD or Gigabyte.

I agree. But incase AMD and Gigabyte are forced to do so i hope they go for CM's throat as long as this infringement is actually true to begin with, i have not read anything about it so fare so this is the first i hear of this.

 

[nashathedog]

Personally I don't think anyone should be able to patent the idea of having a pump on the block and it kinda sounds like that

In 2014 Asetek pursued legal action against several liquid cooling technology players alleging that they – Cooler Master as well as CoolIt and AVC – have infringed on its patented design of incorporating a liquid cooling pump with a cold plate in a single unit.

Have they used the identical unit or is as different as something so limited in ways to do it can be?

 

[fs123]

AMD shunned Asetek for Coolermaster hence the sour grapes no doubt. The Asetek cooler on the 295X2 was pretty good but AMD and Gigabyte must have found CM cheaper for their newer cards.

 

[Orangey]

Is it part of due diligence to assess a partner's product for infringement? How can you get in trouble for this if you're not CM?

 

[humbug]

Asetek sent the following statement to gamersnexus.net

“Asetek’s attorneys have recently sent cease and desist letters to Gigabyte, demanding that it cease selling Giga-Byte’s GEFORCE GTX 980 Water Force (sold under at least model number GV-N980WAOC-4GD) because it contains the Seidon 120M found by the court to infringe Asetek’s patents.

Asetek’s attorneys have also written a cease and desist letter to AMD, demanding that it stop selling its Radeon R9 Fury X product, because it infringes Asetek’s patents. Our attorneys have had some difficulty obtaining a Gigabyte GV-N98TXTREME W-6GD, but we expect to receive and analyze one very soon for infringement.”

You cannot patient the concept of what is effectively an all in one CPU cooler mounted on a GPU.

In other words they are using an existing technology (not owned by Asetek) in a different way.

So what are Asetek trying to pull, that no one but them can mount a closed water block on a GPU? are they going to sue Corsair because some of their general public customers use their blocks mounted on GPU's?

Good Grief...

 

[pgi947]

So, if I'm reading this correctly (a WCCF article of all things), the issue is that CM haven't got a licensing deal for these GPU based units and Asetek aren't likely to offer them one. However they do have a licensing/royalty deal in place for existing CPU AIO coolers, of which CM are paying out over 25% in royalties?

Yes they can and have patented it, read the article, this is an ongoing issue that CM are already paying for on previous infringements. Humbug, read the article first, they aren't saying no one can mount an AIO on a gpu and sell it, just that if it infringes on their patents you'd better be paying for the pleasure. Oh and Asetek make corsairs hydro units for them.

Seems like more of an oversight by CM then Asetek being dicks about it, to some degree an oversight by AMD/Giga, but surely they have to take a suppliers word as truth and any potential issues regarding patent infringement should have been raised by CM while signing up a supply contract.

Be interesting to see how this one swings, if they succeed in getting said units pulled from shelves, surely AMD/Giga would then go after CM.

Easy solution for CM? Put the pump on the radiator or something, patent it then sell it.

 

[humbug]

So, if I'm reading this correctly (a WCCF article of all things), the issue is that CM haven't got a licensing deal for these GPU based units and Asetek aren't likely to offer them one. However they do have a licensing/royalty deal in place for existing CPU AIO coolers, of which CM are paying out over 25% in royalties?

Yes they can and have patented it, read the article, this is an ongoing issue that CM are already paying for on previous infringements. Humbug, read the article first, they aren't saying no one can mount an AIO on a gpu and sell it, just that if it infringes on their patents you'd better be paying for the pleasure. Oh and Asetek make corsairs hydro units for them.

Seems like more of an oversight by CM then Asetek being dicks about it, to some degree an oversight by AMD/Giga, but surely they have to take a suppliers word as truth and any potential issues regarding patent infringement should have been raised by CM while signing up a supply contract.

Be interesting to see how this one swings, if they succeed in getting said units pulled from shelves, surely AMD/Giga would then go after CM.

Easy solution for CM? Put the pump on the radiator or something, patent it then sell it.

Your right, it seem Asetek do own the patient for all in one coolers, they won a case against CM for infringement, IE the Seidon series coolers (i had one, 120V, utter junk, now on KRAKEN X31)

So it looks like AMD could loose the coolers for the Fury-X, it doesn't look like Asetek intend to sue AMD, they just want them to stop using those Seidon coolers.

Might not be a bad thing, assuming Asetek's goal is to be AMD's supplier for said cards, they are better than CM's coolers.

 

[humbug]

Oh BTW....

Easy solution for CM? Put the pump on the radiator or something, patent it then sell it.

Check this out, someone already had that idea.......

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/antec-kuhler-h2o-950-liquid-cpu-cooler-hs-011-an.html

 

[pgi947]

Your right, it seem Asetek do own the patient for all in one coolers, they won a case against CM for infringement, IE the Seidon series coolers (i had one, 120V, utter junk, now on KRAKEN X31)

So it looks like AMD could loose the coolers for the Fury-X, it doesn't look like Asetek intend to sue AMD, they just want them to stop using those Seidon coolers.

Might not be a bad thing, assuming Asetek's goal is to be AMD's supplier for said cards, they are better than CM's coolers.

I think the likely outcome would be that no more FX/waterforce cards will be produced with CM's AIO with CM having to pay a fee based on quantity of current stock held and current stock sold.

For Giga, its not a HUGE issue, for AMD it is, they've struggled to get FX stock onto shelves and now this risks kicking them in the stones, though I'm sure they'll work something out pretty sharpish with Asetek.

Oh BTW....



Check this out, someone already had that idea.......

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/antec-kuhler-h2o-950-liquid-cpu-cooler-hs-011-an.html

You know what, I actually thought as I typed that "I'm sure Antec are doing this" but didn't bother to look it up

Looks like CM better get their hands in their pockets if they want to stay in the AIO game.

They could always make an in-line pump using something like the DC-LT, pretty sure that couldn't be subject to a patent, wouldn't be big enough to be intrusive either.

 

[Gerard]

AMD shunned Asetek for Coolermaster hence the sour grapes no doubt. The Asetek cooler on the 295X2 was pretty good but AMD and Gigabyte must have found CM cheaper for their newer cards.

Ended up biting them in the ass though, barely any stock of fury x for months and a load of them had pump issues which most people returned them for.

Pinching pennies doesn't always work out in the end, hopefully that's a lesson learned for them.

 

[fs123]

Ended up biting them in the ass though, barely any stock of fury x for months and a load of them had pump issues which most people returned them for.

Pinching pennies doesn't always work out in the end, hopefully that's a lesson learned for them.

There's no reason why AMD can't just allow AIB's to use custom cooling solutions or just simple air cooling like the Fury Pro's. The Fiji XT chip can be air cooled as we saw in the Fury Nano. Maybe that would solve all the stock problems too.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Yep can easily be air cooled, only went for the pump as they were hyped to be an 'overclockers dream', but what a disaster thats turned out to be.

 

[thebennyboy]

Yep can easily be air cooled, only went for the pump as they were hyped to be an 'overclockers dream', but what a disaster thats turned out to be.

tbh, she probably wasn't meant to say "overclockers dream" and just said it in a panic.

Lisa Su is not the best public speaker, she seems to be doing a good enough job at sorting out the company.

 

[fs123]

tbh, she probably wasn't meant to say "overclockers dream" and just said it in a panic.

Lisa Su is not the best public speaker, she seems to be doing a good enough job at sorting out the company.

It was one of the engineers Joe Macri, who said it. Not Lisa Su.

 

[nashathedog]

So, if I'm reading this correctly (a WCCF article of all things), the issue is that CM haven't got a licensing deal for these GPU based units and Asetek aren't likely to offer them one. However they do have a licensing/royalty deal in place for existing CPU AIO coolers, of which CM are paying out over 25% in royalties?

Yes they can and have patented it, read the article, this is an ongoing issue that CM are already paying for on previous infringements. Humbug, read the article first, they aren't saying no one can mount an AIO on a gpu and sell it, just that if it infringes on their patents you'd better be paying for the pleasure. Oh and Asetek make corsairs hydro units for them.

Seems like more of an oversight by CM then Asetek being dicks about it, to some degree an oversight by AMD/Giga, but surely they have to take a suppliers word as truth and any potential issues regarding patent infringement should have been raised by CM while signing up a supply contract.

Be interesting to see how this one swings, if they succeed in getting said units pulled from shelves, surely AMD/Giga would then go after CM.

Easy solution for CM? Put the pump on the radiator or something, patent it then sell it.

Something like that shouldn't be patentable.
It's an obvious direction to go as the tech became small enough to be put there.
Technically it's all new crazy laws, What if someone had patented the car engine back in 18whatever (17??) What would have happened then when Ford, Benz etc started making cars?
Please don't tell me they did

 

[pgi947]

You only have to look as far as apple patent protecting rounded corners to know that its all BS

Interestingly this image popped up in google images, from asetek, but the 'view page' leads me to a 404

 

[Nelly]

Easy solution for CM? Put the pump on the radiator or something, patent it then sell it.

Oh BTW....

Check this out, someone already had that idea.......

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/antec-kuhler-h2o-950-liquid-cpu-cooler-hs-011-an.html

Swiftech already had that idea, they launched the (Patent Pending) H140-X/H240-X >> http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/swiftech-h140-x-liquid-cooler,news-49296.html

I've not checked to see if the patent passed, but if it has, is it possible Antec could be in trouble with Swiftech? Or is it different?

Funnily enough, Swiftech had the same issue with Asetek with the H220 >> http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Swiftech-H220-Asetek-Legal-Patent,23615.html

 

[pgi947]

Strictly speaking Antecs design is a pump mounted to the fan rather then the radiator though

That said about swiftech, fairly sure aquacomputer's modularity radiator pump combo's were about long before swiftechs AIO's