It has been a long court battle between PC component manufacturers Asetek and CMI, also known as Cooler Master, and despite a few victories in favour of Asetek, it seems the case is yet to reach an end! We first brought you the news that Asetek were taking Cooler Master to court over multiple patent infringements three years ago. Skip ahead to December last year, Cooler Master was found guilty in the Asetek patent suit, awarding them damages based on 14.5% royalty rate. However, CMI demanded a new judgment as a matter of law and a new trial.
Unfortunately for CMI, the court has denied their demands, but rather than simply throwing out the case, the judge awarded Asetek enhanced damages of 25.375% royalty rate on CMI’s revenues for sales of the infringing products, dating this back to the start of 2015, whilst also blocking CMI and its parent, Cooler Master, from selling certain infringing products in the US.
The only thing in favour of CMI at the moment is that they’re able to appeal the matter, but perhaps they won’t be as motivated to do so given the recent turn of events.
Hopefully, the matter will be resolved in the near future, allowing fans to get hold of the products they desire without too many headaches.
And this is why I won’t buy any Asetek manufactured products.