The Asetek patent has expired!

[Grim5]

The Asetek patent expires tomorrow; 20 years of Asetek patent trolling and screwing over CPU cooler manufacturers has come to an end

All-in-one water cooling systems: Asetek's ubiquitous patent expires

For many years, Asetek sued manufacturers who integrated pumps into their CPU coolers. Now the underlying patent is expiring.

www.heise.de

 

[Ayahuasca]

Will the consumer actually see any tangible benefits from this e.g. better performing AIOs or significantly cheaper options?

 

[Hotwired]

Will the consumer actually see any tangible benefits from this e.g. better performing AIOs or significantly cheaper options?

Nothing to do with performance, just means companies don't have to pay Asetek every single time they sell a pump on block AIO.

Lower price? Woah now, lets not be too hasty, not paying Asetek tax means the profit margin increased, let's see if anyone else lowers prices first.

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

20 years already?
Can't believe it's been that long
Yeah i remember them going after swiftech
Really liked swiftech stuff
Made better than other AIO and expandable
Or repair or upgrade with standard g 1/4 connection
And 16/10mm tubing
And good pump
Still got 3 of them laying around somewhere
As for swiftech not even sure they sell to the public
Anymore
Though think they do some stuff for ek

 

[MrRockliffe]

I think the patent has been a good thing. As a result we’ve seen some amazing ideas like Arctic’s latest stuff - doubt we would have otherwise.


In a way it has forced companies to try and innovate.

 

[tamzzy]

Thermalright 360mm AIO for £35 delivered, don't really need to consider anything else tbh (ok maybe the arctic liquid freezers but that's about it)

 

[Glanza]

Can't imagine it's suddenly going to make the AIO industry come on leaps and bounds, will be interesting to see how many of the bigger companies stick with asetek pumps or move to something different.

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

After having a look
Seems asetek is in the sights
Of a few companies wanting to buy
It out
Tariffs possibly hurting them?
Maybe they will move out of consumer AIO
And into the data centre cooling side of things?

 

[doyll]

Yeah, Swiftech wasn't copying Asetek at all.

Reality is in this case patent was detrimental to development of better AiOs because Asetek didn't need to develop better AiO.

I think patent rights allowed too broad a design concept in Asetek AiO patent, thus any design concept even remotely similar might be included in their patent. Combined with Asetek aggressively filing suit against every AiO competitor with even remote similar design forced many companies to remove their AiOs from market because litigation costs to prove they weren't infringing on patent would have been too expensive.

End result was Asetek didn't need to develop better AIOs to beat competition, so we had little to no improvement real improvement other than cosmetics.

Not just Asetek's fault. Patent law creates monopoly, which means little to no improvement until patent expires.

Now that patent off I'm hoping we will see some real improvement in AiO component quality (especially pumps), hopefully threaded fittings / quick connects and fill port and even small reservoir.

What tamzzy said.
Thermalright is king of the hill again. They make good products performing as well or better than competition for prices 1/2 or less of competition's prices. Makes them hard to beat.