Behind a patent, there is research work which perhaps lasted several years and which had a cost to the business, although that doesn’t mean I intend to use it in the future. By patenting it, any company can use it by paying the corresponding royalties and thus avoid spending time and money on research tasks. However, not all businesses are willing to pay or take the quicker route: copying.
Lawsuits over the use of patents are more numerous than usual in the industry and do not only come from the patent trolls (companies dedicated to buying out bankrupt companies with patents filed to expose large multinationals). The latest example that this type of complaint is not exclusive to this type of company is found at PC component manufacturer Cooler Master.
Cooler Master sues its competitors
Cooler Master filed a complaint against silver stone, Enermax Yes Aptaltek in the District Court of California, for using the patented AIO design of its cooling systems without paying the corresponding royalties, a technology that this manufacturer uses in its line of all-in-one cooling systems. But, furthermore, in the same lawsuit he also claims that they blatantly copied the ARGB Mini Controller Design. As is typical in this type of claim, Cooler Master requires compensation based on the damages caused in addition to covering the legal costs of the claim.
The patents involved in this complaint are 10,509,446, 11,061,450, and 856,941. The most important patent and the most important part of the lawsuit is patent number 10,509,446, a patent that speaks to the cooling design and in which its operation is described, operation which is exactly the same as that available in certain heat sinks from SilverStore, Enermax and Apaltek.
The manufacturers’ products related to this patent use complaint are SilverStone’s IceMyst 240 AIO and IceGem 360 AIO, Enermax’s Liqmax III ARG AIO, and Apaltek’s Auquafusion ADV AIO. At this time, Cooler Master has not requested that prohibit the sale of the products affected by the complaint in the United States, which is quite common in this type of lawsuit and we saw it recently with the Apple Watch in the United States, the sale of which was prohibited until the elements affected by the Masimo lawsuit are deactivated in the Apple Smart Watch.
Cooler Master’s AIO cooling design is very similar to other manufacturers such as NZXT o MSIHowever, as one of the defendants points out, neither of the two companies was involved in the trial. Most likely, MSI and NZXT pay the corresponding royalties, which, as we can infer from the lawsuit, none of the three defendants did to offer a cheaper product than the competition.
Apaltek is an OEM supplier for SilverStone and Enermax and This is not the first time he has faced to a lawsuit against Cooler Master. In 2015, she won a similar case against Cooler Master and two years later, in 2017, she also lost a similar case against Cooler Master. What is clear is that the enmity between the two companies goes back a long way.
