Asetek Demands AMD Stop Selling The Fury X On Infringement Claims

Liquid cooling giant Asetek has reportedly issued a “cease-and-desist” notice to AMD over the sale of AMD’s R9 Fury X graphics card. A similar notice was also sent to Gigabyte to stop sales of its GeForce GTX 980 Water Force graphics card. Both cards feature a closed-loop liquid cooling solution by Cooler Master. Cooler Master is already currently locked in a patent infringement lawsuit with Asetek over Asetek’s pump-block and movable fittings designs.

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If you can remember Asetek has already had a legal victory over Cooler Master where Cooler Master was ordered to pay 14.5% royalties for the sale of all infringing products which included Cooler Master’s Seidon, Nepton, and Glacer lines. Cooler Master was then ordered to halt all sales of its infringing products and to pay double the royalty rate for its non-compliance in the matter.

Now with both the R9 Fury X and Gigabyte’s Water Force graphics card featuring the infringing designs Asetek is once again going after them. In a statement to GamersNexus, Asetek wrote:

“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.”

We are not sure how these events will impact availability of these products or if either AMD or Gigabyte will comply with Asetek’s demands. We could see inventory of these products start to dry up as a result of these C&D orders.

We will definitely keep you updated on this story as it develops.

Source: Gamers Nexus | News Archive

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