Swiftech Withdraws H220 Liquid Coolers from the US Market
Following a patent infringement claim from Asetek, Swiftech has withdrawn its H220 liquid coolers from the US market to "avoid litigation."
Swiftech has voluntarily decided to withdraw its H220 liquid cooler from the US market in response to a claim of patent infringement from Asetek's lawyers who say the CPU cooler infringes on its patents, specifically US patents 8,240,362 (the '362 patent) and 8,245,764 (the '764 patent).
According to the company's press release, Swiftech maintains that it does not believe that the H220 infringes "any valid claim of the '362 and '764 patents" and has made the decision to withdraw the cooler to avoid litigation. The release also included a sincere "apology to its US customers for this extraordinary situation" and promised that full technical and warranty support will still be provided for the H220 and that the "product will continue to be sold in other countries."
I want our customers to know and expect with absolute confidence that Swiftech’s resourcefulness will once again be brilliantly demonstrated in the immediate future” - Gabriel Rouchon (Swiftech Chairman and CTA)
Finally, it is worth noting that Asetek filed suits against CoolIT in August 2012 and Cooler Master in January 2013 on similar grounds of patent infringement. Swiftech approached Asestek on June 27, 2013 for a "nonexclusive license for the asserted patents" but was denied on July 12, 2013 after receiving a response from Asetek's legal counsel that the company doesn't offer licenses.

Ian.
Is that a sly way of saying " give us a month, we'll find something else to copy"?
Lol
Ian.
That aside, I'm a system builder and have been using various Asetek OEM AIO in client builds. That stopped today and I'll be using them all for batting practice. I don't care if I'm out money on this, I refuse to support patent trolling. That's why I don't sell Apple products, or anyone else's that patent trolls like this. Hell, those patents even post-date the H220's development. They created these patents with the intent to litigate competition.
As such, I support Asetek's right to profit off of their innovation and their right as a business to protect their intellectual property and patents.
Nobody cares what you support.
The current patent system (this case being a good example) isn't fostering innovation, it's holding it back. Asetek had an idea for a product, which they developed. Another company took the product idea and improved on it, even innovated one might say, and can't sell the damn thing because of a lousy patent claim. It's discernible difference is that the H220 is made better, performs better. Asetek is taking a page out of Apple's book because they can't beat their competitors any other way.
The whole thing reminds me of the emerging steam engine days, same problem.
Nobody could really get going with new designs until existing patents expired.
The hasn't really changed. Who knows how much further ahead all types of tech
could be if innovation wasn't held back by the lousy patent system.
Ian.
I'm really pissed because the cooler I had worked great for 2 days, and the pump locked up. Who knows, maybe they did copy the cheap Chinese POS design. Sure performs like it. So my dilemma now is now what do I do?
When it worked, it cooled fantastically.