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High-stop h2o coolers have become popular at the top of the graphics carte du jour market in recent years, but a recent lawsuit victory for Asetek could spell trouble for companies like AMD and Gigabyte. In tardily September, Asetek won a patent infringement lawsuit confronting CoolerMaster. The judgment hinged on CM'south use of a cooling pump mounted directly to a common cold plate, which was institute to violate Asetek'due south patents.

CoolerMaster isn't the only company potentially caught past this event, but it provides cooling solutions to a number of companies, including Gigabyte and AMD. The company has been slugged with a hefty fine for violating Asetek's patent, and must pay Asetek a 23.375% royalty charge per unit on all infringing products sold since January 1, 2015. At present, GamerNexus reports that Asetek has sent cease-and-desist letters to both Gigabyte and AMD, demanding that the manufacturers terminate selling the WaterForce brand of GTX 980 products and the Fury X, respectively.

Asetek apparently has no plans to reach an agreement with CoolerMaster. The company's argument is reprinted below:

"There is no licensing understanding in place with Cooler Primary, nor do we programme to offer any in the foreseeable hereafter. Asetek sued Libation Main and CMI USA, Inc. (Cooler Principal'south U.s.a. affiliate) for infringement of Asetek's US Patent Nos. 8,240,362 and 8,245,764, and the jury found that the Cooler Main products at upshot infringe Asetek'south patents and awarded amercement to Asetek. The judge also entered an injunction prohibiting Libation Master and CMI USA from importing or selling the accused products in the US, and the guess awarded enhanced amercement because of continued sales subsequently the jury's verdict. The injunction states '[a]southward used herein, Infringing Products shall mean the following Cooler Master products: Seidon 120M, Seidon 120XL, Seidon 240M, Seidon 120V, Seidon 120V Plus, Nepton 140XL, [Nepton 280L], Glacer 240L, and products not more than than colorably different from them."

RadeonFury1

AMD's Fury Ten uses a CoolerMaster rather than an Asetek cooler.

End-and-desist messages can be intimidating, just nosotros'd be stunned if Asetek really won an injunction against either AMD or Gigabyte. Tactics like this are designed to bring companies to the negotiating tabular array — Asetek is likely hoping to recoup a percent of the sales of CoolerMaster products.

We reached out to AMD, which provided the states with the following statement:

"We are aware that Asetek has sued Cooler Chief. While we defer to Libation Master regarding the details of the litigation, we understand that the jury in that case did not find that the Libation Master heat sink currently used with the Radeon Fury X infringed any of Asetek'south patents."

AMD has previously used Asetek hardware for the R9 295X2, so we'll have to wait and see how this plays out. The chance of a meaningful disruption to Fury X sales, however, is quite low.