[Tom's] Cooler Master CLCs to be pulled from US Market

[Essence_of_War]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/injunction-cooler-master-closed-loop-coolers,30175.html

On September 23, the court again sided with Asetek and denied Cooler Master's demands. Not only did the ruling remain in Asetek's favor, the court increased the fine from 14.5 percent to 25.735 percent on all sales from January 1, 2015 and later. Additionally, the court issued a permanent injunction barring Cooler Master from selling closed-loop coolers that use a pump mounted on top of a cold plate in the United States.

Ouch. Any wild speculation on whether or not this will affect the R9-FuryX?

An interesting twist in this story could be bad news for AMD. Cooler Master is the company behind the closed loop cooler installed in the Radeon R9 Fury X reference cooling solution. Cooler Master was not willing to confirm or deny if this cooler will be affected.

 

[Mr Evil]

I am continually amazed at how the most obvious ideas can be patented. The two patents infringed on boil down to "combine two things that usually go together into one". Although these two aren't quite as fun as my favourite "use a USB hub... with a computer!

 

[aigomorla]

its super easy to fix this..

put the pump on the radiator side.

 

[MrTeal]

its super easy to fix this..

put the pump on the radiator side.

That does make the radiator physically larger though, and more difficult to make compatible with every case. It's not a bad idea for Coolermaster since CLCs are a bit more niche and people who use them generally are able to fit them in, but it might be an issue for AMD who need to keep the form factor as compatible as possible so as not to restrict sales.

I'd see another way at least for the GPU models to get around it if they really want, and that's just to separate the cold plate from the pump on the card enough that they're no longer infringing. Really though, I would imagine AMD might just switch to Asetek as a supplier if CM is no longer able to supply them with an acceptable product.

 

[JEDIYoda]

That does make the radiator physically larger though, and more difficult to make compatible with every case. It's not a bad idea for Coolermaster since CLCs are a bit more niche and people who use them generally are able to fit them in, but it might be an issue for AMD who need to keep the form factor as compatible as possible so as not to restrict sales.

I'd see another way at least for the GPU models to get around it if they really want, and that's just to separate the cold plate from the pump on the card enough that they're no longer infringing. Really though, I would imagine AMD might just switch to Asetek as a supplier if CM is no longer able to supply them with an acceptable product.

But you must admit--that would be an easy fix!!

 

[seamadan]

Man, I should have patented 'using water to cool a computer'. I would be rich now...

 

[ClockHound]

Wish I'd patented 'using forced air to cool a computer'

followed by 'using convection to cool a computer'

 

[aigomorla]

i should of bought rights to MP3.

but yeah asetek has been at this war for a very long time, and they finally won which is bad news for a lot of people.

Sad thing is swiftech did it before asetek and now there are in a stump.

 

[dlerious]

That does make the radiator physically larger though, and more difficult to make compatible with every case. It's not a bad idea for Coolermaster since CLCs are a bit more niche and people who use them generally are able to fit them in, but it might be an issue for AMD who need to keep the form factor as compatible as possible so as not to restrict sales.

I'd see another way at least for the GPU models to get around it if they really want, and that's just to separate the cold plate from the pump on the card enough that they're no longer infringing. Really though, I would imagine AMD might just switch to Asetek as a supplier if CM is no longer able to supply them with an acceptable product.

I believe the EK Predator integrates the pump with rad.
See http://predator.ekwb.com/

 

[CZroe]

I modded a Swiftech H320 into an old chassis and moving the pump to the radiator would cause serious fitment issues for me.

I don't think the patents apply to a CLC that comes pre installed on a video are because the product is a pre-assembled liquid-cooled video card and not a CLC (as I have heard it described, their patent only applies to CLCs).