Asetek Demands AMD Cease Sales of the R9 Fury X

Asetek Demands AMD Cease Sales of the R9 Fury X

| Source: Gamers Nexus Author: Mark Campbell

Asetek Demands AMD Cease Sales of the R9 Fury X

Over the past number of year Asetek has been hunting down all of those who would infringe on their liquid cooling patents, having already successfully taken a large number of all in one liquid coolers out of the US market, most notably Swiftech's H220 liquid cooler and Cooler Master's Seidon Series of Liquid coolers.

AMD's R9 Fury X GPU is cooled by a AIO liquid cooler which made by Cooler Master, a Liquid cooler which is similar in design to Cooler Master's infringing products, leaving AMD in a difficult position.

Now Asetek has announced that they have sent a Cease & Desist order to AMD over the sale of their liquid cooler R9 Fury X GPU, and to Gigabyte for their Liquid cooled GTX 980 Waterforce GPUs, as their products are allegedly infringing on Asetek's patents.

Below is a statement that Asetek made to Gamer Nexus.

Asetek’s attorneys have recently sent cease and desist letters to Gigabyte, demanding that it cease selling Giga-Byte’s GEFORCE GTX 980 Water Force (sold under at least model number GV-N980WAOC-4GD) because it contains the Seidon 120M found by the court to infringe Asetek’s patents. Asetek’s attorneys have also written a cease and desist letter to AMD, demanding that it stop selling its Radeon R9 Fury X product, because it infringes Asetek’s patents. Our attorneys have had some difficulty obtaining a Gigabyte GV-N98TXTREME W-6GD, but we expect to receive and analyze one very soon for infringement.

Right now it is unknown whether AMD or Gigabyte will comply with this order, but right now Asetek has had a great track record when it comes to patent infringement cases, especially in the US market. With the cooler from AMD's R9 Fury X being made by Cooler Master it is very likely that the courts will side with Asetek, given the fact that they have already received damages from the company.

There is no licensing agreement in place with Cooler Master, nor do we plan to offer any in the foreseeable future. Asetek sued Cooler Master and CMI USA, Inc. (Cooler Master’s US affiliate) for infringement of Asetek’s US Patent Nos. 8,240,362 and 8,245,764, and the jury found that the Cooler Master products at issue infringe Asetek’s patents and awarded damages to Asetek. The judge also entered an injunction prohibiting Cooler Master and CMI USA from importing or selling the accused products in the US, and the judge awarded enhanced damages because of continued sales after the jury’s verdict. The injunction states as 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 colorably different from them.

Right now it is unknown exactly what this will do to the GPU market, as if the AMD R9 Fury X was to be pulled from shelves the Nvidia GTX 980Ti will have no real competition on the top end of the market, leaving AMD in a very embarrassing position.

AMD's R9 Fury X cannot be made by manufacturers with a non-reference PCB or cooler at this time, meaning that all R9 Fury X GPUs have this allegedly patent infringing cooler. AMD may need to open up their R9 Fury X GPU to non-reference designs in the future to avoid using Asetek's patented cooling design, but right now it is unclear how AMD will react to this.

You can join the discussion on Asetek demanding that AMD pulls the R9 Fury X from the market on the OC3D Forums.

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