Asetek urges AMD to stop selling Radeon R9 Fury X after patent infringement

In September, Cooler Master was sentenced for restricting Asetek’s patents for closed water coolers with the Seidon, Nepton and Glacer series. The result was a sales halt in the US and extensive damages, something that may now extend to the company’s partners.

Asetek now announces that the company has sent a cease and desist call for a stop to sales to AMD and Gigabyte, which sell graphics cards with closed water coolers from Cooler Master and which are based on the now stopped Seidon 120M. What this means is that the company is threatening to take legal action if the affected models are not removed from store shelves in the United States.

AMD’s side is concerned with the flagship Radeon R9 Fury X, which is only sold in its reference version with a water cooler from Cooler Master. In other words, a sales halt would mean that the graphics card would disappear completely, if AMD does not choose to let partner manufacturers make their own designs of the card similar to the R9 Fury. For Gigabyte, the newly launched Geforce GTX 980 Waterforce is affected.

Whether this will affect AMD and Gigabyte in practice, and whether there will be a sales halt or not, it is too early to answer. In a statement to Gamersnexus, however, Asetek is clear that the company does not plan to offer Cooler Master a license agreement for the patents affected. However, it is probable that Asetek’s request and any legal action will have no effect outside the United States.