Asetek sagsøger CooliT for krænkelse af vandkølings patent

Den danske vandkølingsproducent Asetek har netop indgivet et sagsanlæg i mod den konkurrerende producent CoolIt, for misbrug af deres nyerhvervede vandkølings patent.

Selve baggrunden for retssagen, er et detaljeret designpatent af vandkølingssystemer til computere. Asetek ansøgte om det pågældende patent i juni 2010, men de modtog først godkendelsen af USPTO den 14. august 2012.

Læs også: Se Aseteks nye vandkølingssystem til bærbarer og kompakte systemer

Det lader dermed til, at de har ventet på den endelige godkendelse, før de med fråder om munden kaster sig over CoolIt. Det godkendte patent dækker nemlig i princippet over designet af et hvert mainstream vandkølingssystem. Det overordnede vandkølings patent består af i alt 15 individuelle patentkrav, som man her under kan læse på engelsk.

• an integrated element including a heat exchanging interface
  
• a reservoir
  
• a pump, wherein the reservoir is configured to receive a cooling liquid from outside the reservoir through an inlet and pass the cooling liquid to the outside through an outlet
  
• the reservoir including an upper chamber and a lower chamber
  
• the upper chamber and the lower chamber being vertically displaced chambers that are separated from each other by at least a horizontal wall and fluidly coupled together by a plurality of substantially circular passages
  
• at least one of the plurality of substantially circular passages being positioned on the horizontal wall
  
• a boundary wall of the lower chamber being formed by the heat exchanging interface
  
• the heat exchanging interface is adapted to provide separable thermal contact between the processing unit and the cooling liquid such that heat is dissipated from the processing unit to the cooling liquid as the cooling liquid passes through the lower chamber of the reservoir
  
• the pump is adapted to direct the cooling liquid through the upper chamber and the lower chamber of the reservoir
  
• the pump including a motor having a rotor, a stator and an impeller having a plurality of curved blades
  
• the impeller being positioned within the reservoir
  
• a heat radiator spaced apart from the integrated element
  
• the heat radiator being fluidly coupled to the outlet and the inlet of the reservoir
  
• the heat radiator being configured to circulate the cooling liquid therethrough and exhaust heat from the cooling liquid
  
• a fan configured to direct air through the heat radiator, the fan being driven by a motor separate from the motor of the pump."

Asetek har siden virksomhedens etablering i 2006 solgt mere end en million vandkølingsenheder, men dagens sagsanlæg kan få alvorlige konsekvenser for vandkølingsindustrien, ikke mindst for andre producenters konkurrenceevne. CoolIt har endnu ikke kommenteret sagsanlægget.


Kilde: Tom's Hardware US