Yesterday word came out that Asetek is going after Cooler Master, claiming CM's new Seidon 120M, Seidon 120XL and Seidon 240M infringe upon two of its watercooling patents. Asetek tells the court tha... Asetek to sue Cooler Master
holy crap a tech lawsuit that doesn't involve MS, Apple, Samsung, Oracle, Intel, Nvidia, AMD, or IBM. Not only that, it's a lawsuit on something reasonable. Like I actually hope Asetek wins because they weren't patent trolling, they were just simply trying to protect their product.
It's not really about the idea of water-cooling loop setup but rather on how Asetek is implementing it. And no, it's not a patent about 'water-cooling in general'. I don't think those writings (and the images it references) under the 'DETAILED DESCRIPTION' section can be considered generic to any water-cooling loop setup. The first half of the patent is a generic overview of a cooling loop setup, but what's written after all that is definitely not.
After have watch a bit the patents, it look it is more for the patents who includes: - The way Asetek have implement the pump in the CPU block for this type of watercooling setup . And the "closed" reservoir system. - The way they have implement some parts for refresh the pump ( pumps allways delay some energy to the liquid ). You will tell me, some other brands do thoses H2o premade setup ( Corsair etc ), but they have team up with Asetek for do it . The first who have release waterblocks CPU with this system ( the pump included in the waterblocks ) was Asetek .. this technic have then been port to " H2o premade setup "... A second technic used by other company was too put the pump and reservoir on the rads.
Asetek is suing based on a design patent. CoolerMaster knew the patent existed and chose to violate it just like CoolIT did. Best option for CoolerMaster at this point would be to agree to pay damages and negotiate a licensing deal. It's a common way that Asetek, who manufacturers damn near every AIO watercooling system on the market, does it. There are still other ways to design an AIO watercooling system without violating someone else's patents.
No, that's if Apple made the product. Actually no scratch that, if Apple made it then they'd sue for it containing copper, or the fact that it's intention is to cool off something.