Almost a year ago, ASETEK won the Patent Lawsuit against Cooler Master USA for “copying” their patented All-In-One cooling block and pump design. Initially, the company had already taken 25% of Cooler Master’s revenue for every patent fringing products they sold after winning the lawsuit, and now things are turning a little more bitter for AMD’s Fury X and GIGABYTE’s WaterForce cards.
The AMD Fury X and GIGABYTE GTX 980 WindForce might be different make & model cards, but both of them features a closed loop Cooler Master AIO liquid cooler inside – that according to ASETEK, should forbid both parties from using inside the US of A.
While GIGABYTE is not highly affected by the issue with only one GTX 980 SKU in scrutiny from ASETEK, AMD’s Fury X on the other hand is just starting to get a hold of the market by replenishing their card’s availability but sales might be affected due to this issue so they’re going to have a hard time no doubt.
Patent wars has been the bane of technological advancements, especially in the PC industry, where innovations are taken with small steps and references from already proven and useful products.