There’s some legal drama hotting up in the world of PC cooling, as Cooler Master has just announced that it’s suing its fellow PC cooling aficionados, SilverStone and Enermax, for patent infringement. Cooler Master’s legal filing demands a trial by jury, and claims that some of the defendants’ products are so similar to its own that “an ordinary observer would find [them] to be substantially the same.”
Cooler Master has been a popular manufacturer of PC coolers, cases, and PSUs for decades, and its MasterLiquid ML240L V2 RGB is listed on our best AIO cooler guide. In the latest case, Cooler Master claims that Enermax and SilverStone have violated three of its patents.
Two of them, numbered 10,509,446 and 11,061,450, relate to improving the thermal efficiency of the waterblock/pump unit in an AIO cooler, where at least one of the openings (for the inlet and outlet) in the cover piece sits above the heat exchange unit, while the coolant passes through an additional “flow guidance plate”, which is pictured in the figures below.
The other patent in question, numbered D856941, refers to an LED controller with a specific design, and it’s this controller that Cooler Master claims an “ordinary observer” would find “to be substantially the same” as its own products when compared to those from Enermax and SilverStone.
The filing lists several allegedly patent-infringing products, including the SilverStone IceMyst 240, PF240, PF240W, IceGem 360, and VIDA 240 Slim, as well as the Enermax Aquafusion ADV, Liqmax III ARGB, and Liqtech 360 TR4 II Slim.
Neither Enermax nor SilverStone has publicly commented on the case yet, but an anonymous representative from one of the companies has described Cooler Master as a “bully” when speaking to TechPowerUp about the filing. Cooler Master is no stranger to patent battles either, having had to defend itself in lengthy back-and-forth legal wranglings with Asetek over the last few years.
If you’re looking to build a gaming PC and need a cooler for your processor, make sure you check out our full guide to the best CPU cooler, where we run you through all the best options at a range of prices.