Asetek demands that AMD stop selling water-cooled R9 Fury X
Water cooler manufacturer Asetek has sent AMD a letter of demand instructing it to stop selling the R9 Fury X. That video card uses a water cooler supplied by Cooler Master and that company infringes Asetek’s patents.
Asetek has been suing Cooler Master since 2013. The judge ruled twice that the latter infringes patents of the water cooler manufacturer. In September 2015, the District Court of California ruled in favor of Asetek again in a case against CMI, the American subsidiary of Cooler Master.
It now appears that AMD uses a Cooler Master water cooler for the Fury X and, according to Asetek, it is a model that infringes its patents. Asetek has confirmed to GamersNexus that the patent case has been expanded and that the manufacturer is now also targeting AMD. Asetek’s lawyers have sent a cease and desist letter demanding that the sale of the R9 Fury X cease. AMD has not yet commented on the allegations.
Not only does Asetek want AMD to stop selling its R9 Fury X, the water-cooled Nvidia GTX 980, with type number GV-N980WAOC-4GD, from Gigabyte also uses a Cooler Master cooler: the Seidon 120M. Asetek says it is still waiting for a copy of the GV-N98TEXTREME W-6GD, to investigate which cooler is used on it.
To GamersNexus, Asetek states that there is no license agreement with Cooler Master. In addition, the company has no plans to enter into such an agreement in the near future. In the rulings that have already taken place, Asetek has already been awarded compensation for the patent infringement. The judge would also have ruled that Cooler Master may no longer sell the products in question in the US. Because this still happens, the judge would have allowed the compensation to increase.
The patent case between Asetek and Cooler Master concerns US patents 8245764 and 8240362. These describe technology for a maintenance-free system, which includes a pump and a radiator. Cooler Master is infringing patents with its all-in-one water coolers in the Seidon line.