What does an animal do when it is cornered? It bites wildly. And a bigger company? It secures the supposed silverware and initiates a wave of warnings and lawsuits in order to be able to derive the greatest possible benefit from (still) valid patents. We’ll see in a moment exactly how and against whom the company is acting (including an exclusive document), but first consider the part of the story that is publicly available to all.
Outwardly it is visible to everyone that Asetek had to revise its profit forecast for the full year 2021 significantly. At the moment, group sales are only expected to grow by 10% to 20% compared to the previous forecast of 20% to 30%. But turnover alone is relative, because in the end only the operating result counts. And now it gets interesting, because the forecast was previously 8 to 12 million US dollars, but is now decreasing to 0 to 2 million US dollars.
The reasons are complex and Asetek itself gives the US embargoes against China, the increased component and shipping costs as well as a one-time cost of 2.5 million US dollars due to the exit from the HPC sector (data centers) as justification which in 2020 still accounted for over 10% of total sales. According to my information, the withdrawal from the enterprise segment has been announced much longer, as Asetek has never really been able to gain a foothold there – so it is anything but a surprise. The company has also been trying since 2020 to shift its focus back to the gaming sector and thus the private customer area.
The timing fits, an action that Asetek started back in November 2020 and which has so far hardly been known because the industry is generally quite silent. Asetek has asked countless companies that manufacture (or have had) all-in-one compact water cooling systems and sell them in the USA to withdraw relevant products from the market there. It’s not the first of its kind (just think of the prestigious lawsuit against Cooler Master). An exclusive letter was leaked to me last year that the complaint of patent infringement by the US law firm Finnegan, which specializes in such matters (in this case against the Swiss company Arctic), proves. I’m going to write something about the patent, now you should first read through the content.
Of course, such a letter is only a first warning shot and it is also forbidden to distribute documents from ongoing legal disputes in public. It is interesting, however, who received all of these letters and how panicked the reactions of the companies concerned were in some cases. As far as I am currently informed, in addition to Arctic, companies such as Aerocool, EK Waterblocks, Jonsbo, Lian Li and others were also written to (which of course is mainly due to the Chinese OEM used).
Of course, there is very little to know about the further course of the whole action, but you do get one or the other hint that you are either trying desperately to come to an agreement with Asetek or seeing the whole thing with a gesture of nonchalance, depending on the company (and size). Overall, however, a success against the competition could also have a positive effect on the feared zero at Asetek, which could certainly be used.
But what does the listed patent US 8,245,764 B2 actually mean? Everything and nothing and you can actually cover and attack almost everything that has a pump, reservoir and heat sink, if you look at the details listed. You should also know that the patent protection only applies until June 2025, so it seemed about time again to carry out a (pre) last attack.
Asetek US8245764
I also have one or the other good connection to some of the companies listed above, so that the further course can certainly also be documented. So it remains exciting to see whether and how Asetek will develop its focus on the consumer area over its competitors and establish itself. In the end it was possible to win bigger customers like MSI (Core Liquid). So it remains exciting as always.
Sources: Own, MarketScreener