PRESS RELEASE



San Jose, September 23, 2015.

In late 2014, Asetek won a patent infringement case against CMI USA, Inc. (“CMI”) at the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The jury unanimously ruled in favor of Asetek, and awarded damages based on a 14.5% royalty rate. In a post trial motion, CMI demanded a judgement as a matter of law and a new trial.

The court yesterday denied CMI's demands, and instead substantially followed Asetek’s requests and issued a permanent injunction barring CMI and its parent Cooler Master from selling certain infringing products into the Unites States.

Also, the judge awarded Asetek enhanced damages i.e., a 25.375% royalty rate, on CMI’s revenues for sales of infringing products beginning January 1, 2015.

It should be noted that the matter is appealable by CMI.

SOURCE: Via Press Release

Editor's Note: Although many often describe such actions as 'patent trolling' there do appear to be key differences in this instance. The first, and most important, is that ASETEK manufacturers a wide variety of products which depend on AIO liquid cooler patents. The second is that ASETEK is following through with court action, whereas the trolls tend to flee at the mention of a case going to court.

Via Guru3D, the affected Cooler Master products are:



Depending on the specific design used, AMD's R9 Fury X could also be indirectly affected.