Asetek Allowed US Patent Claims on Graphics Liquid Cooling

[Cristian_25H]

Asetek, the world's leading supplier of computer liquid cooling solutions, today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has allowed a patent on the company's thermal interposer liquid cooling system designed for cooling graphic processing units (GPUs). Liquid cooling the GPU enables lower noise, lower temperatures, and enhanced performance over traditional air cooling.

"As seen in the recently announced AMD Radeon R9 295X2, the graphics cooling market is one that we see as having tremendous growth potential for our desktop business," said André Sloth Eriksen, Founder and CEO of Asetek. "We continue to see increasing interest from GPU and graphics card manufacturers due to increased power use and demands for lower acoustics. Given this interest, it is possible that the GPU cooling business could rival our CPU cooling business in the coming years."






Asetek has been developing liquid cooling solutions for graphics cards for more than 10 years using their patented sealed all-in-one liquid cooling technology. Factory filled and sealed for maximum reliability and ease-of-use, Asetek's liquid coolers have been thoroughly tested and certified to operate without maintenance for over 50,000 hours.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[btarunr]

If this is designed to keep the likes of EKWB, Koolance, and Aquacool out of the US market, then it sucks to be a PC enthusiast in the US.

 

[RCoon]

If this is designed to keep the likes of EKWB, Koolance, and Aquacool out of the US market, then it sucks to be a PC enthusiast in the US.

At first I thought it was for AIO units for GPU's. After further reading, they literally patented GPU blocks. I hope Asetek crash and burn, and get thrown out of court when they attempt to sue all the other block makers (who make far better blocks).
Swifttech was a terrible thing to lose, but this is altogether ridiculous.

 

[dj-electric]

If this is designed to keep the likes of EKWB, Koolance, and Aquacool out of the US market, then it sucks to be a PC enthusiast in the US.

It never sucks to be a PC enthusaist where microcenter, newegg and amazon exist.

 

[xBruce88x]

It never sucks to be a PC enthusaist where microcenter, newegg and amazon exist.

in addition to Fry's and Tigerdirect

 

[Relayer]

If what they want to patent is truly innovating, then fine, but typically that's not it.

 

[lanceknightnight]

The innovative part is how long it is maintenance free.

 

[lobsterrock]

Is this a patent on GPU waterblocks or on AIO GPU watercooling kits? Normally I'm not in favour of patents, and I still think this is lame, but considering the fact that Asetek are pretty much the only people making AIO GPU watercoolers I don't think it's a problem. Unless of course, this affects waterblocks as well.

 

[chodaboy19]

They are learning from the software industry. After beating Swiftech I am sure they were emboldened.

 

[SaltyFish]

Not really surprised. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office along with U.S. patent laws are such horridly corrupt messes that they make the bidding processes for the World Cup and the Olympics look incorruptible. Are we forgetting that the USPTO is the same entity that granted Silverstone a patent for 90-degree rotated PSUs in computer cases in the U.S.?

 

[iO]

To me it looks like they patented a plate which goes between the GPU and the block itself to cool the memory and VRMs semi passiely. So this shouldn t cover fullcover blocks.

 

[gdubc]

 

[stren]

It never sucks to be a PC enthusaist where microcenter, newegg and amazon exist.

Those are resellers. Asetek goes after the manufacturers. If all you can buy from any reseller is Asetek due to abuse of the patent system then yes it does suck to be an enthusiast.

Maybe next they'll patent a heatsink.

If you dislike this then spam the crap out of them on their social media and most importantly don't buy their products or products which are made by them and rebranded (many AIO units).

 

[Chaitanya]

This another prime example showing that USPTO is run by bunch of village simpletons. Here is another example how pathetic this patent system is.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/how-amazon-got-a-patent-on-white-background-photography/

 

[HM_Actua1]

What a load of shit! Now I really hope these D-bags go out of business along with their crappy products...wow.

 

[RealNeil]

I plan to keep my two R9-280X cards on air. They're in crossfire and they stay pretty cool.

I already have blocks and backplates for my two GTX-680s, so I'm good for now. If I need any in the future, I hope that they're available (grey market anyone?) at the time.

I hate monopolies because they always mean higher prices and compromised quality.

Real competition is key to a healthy market. The only losers are companies that don't innovate and sell for a fair price.

 

[TRWOV]

Damn, filed in 2010 and resolved just now

BTW, patent number is US8274787 B2. Notice the publication date? Yes, 25 Sep 2012... I'm no expert but this might mean that it was in fact contested and just until now it was granted.

 

[utengineer]

If this is designed to keep the likes of EKWB, Koolance, and Aquacool out of the US market, then it sucks to be a PC enthusiast in the US.

This patent appears to focus on the modular design they integrated for the interposer. This design allows them to use the the same cold plate (#100) bolted on to the plate body(#202). This is completely different than a traditional full coverage block. The patent goes further in to their heat exchanger(#208), "adapted for cooling a cooling liquid."

This is a very unique design and opens the door to using the same cold plate on different cards. This would also make it very easy to remove the GPU cards after unbolting the cold plate.

 

[RealNeil]

If it's a new idea that improves cooling performance, then they deserve to get the patent.
But I don't like the idea of a "blanket" patent that would shut down their competition.