Slashdot Mirror
Suing Over... Fans?
NiceGeek hooked us up with an amusing story about assorted legal
wackiness surrounding
CPU Fans. Apparently one company is suing another because they are
(gasp) stealing advanced fan technology and violating patents! Horror! The
sad part is that its probably true. Someone needs to write a perl script to take this story, and s/x/y/g the names and technologies, and then feed every company and technology into it. Then create an archive of every possible violation lawsuit. Then patent the idea,
and sue anyone who violates it. Just cut me in for thinking of it ;)
I understand the luddite primal instincts of some slashdot users but they are not right in this case. Designing a silent and highly efficient fan requires some serious aerodinamics, sound propagation and thermal conduction research. It is IMHO harder than designing a memory bus (no fionger pointing at favourite targerts). And "one click" bogousities should not even be compared to the case.
So IMHO a patent on a good fan design has merit.
If you still do not believe me take a golden orb and compare it some cheepo piece of junk. Just look at the blade shapes...
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
We are not talking about a couple of people in their back rooms making water cooling kits, flogging them across the net and suing each other over - I dunno - a proprietary hose clip or something.
This is nVidia who are having their arses kicked. What they've done is pulled a fan apart, copied it, and made their own to save, what, US$0.10 per unit on graphics cards that are US$200 - 300 - upwards? And don't forget these things are a shedload more expensive outside the US.
Tightarses, honestly. Fuck'em. Sue their sorry backsides off.
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
Obviously, you've never used a Sunon fan. I got one in the power supply of the XT I purchased in 1987. It has been spinning more-or-less continuously since that time, without episode.
Not all fans are that good. My last (and I do mean -last-) purchase of a pre-made PC included PSU and CPU fans which each died within two months of use.
I have no doubt that a 7-year-old is capable of designing and building a fan which does in fact work. I have a great deal of doubt that such an apparatus would continue to work 14 years later.
There are at least a few things about metallurgy, magnetics, lubrication and airflow which are neither obvious nor easy to understand, but are certainly required for engineering an efficient, well-designed, and long-lasting fan.
Those who believe anything different are those who are entirely responsible for the fact that most fans sold as computer parts today are complete shit.
Kid-proof tablet..
that I'm a very big fan of this!!! oh, I kill me!
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
"Sunonwealth has made huge investments in developing..." blah blah blah.
I'm don't really understand what their patent covers, but my best guess is the idea of making notches on a circuit board with which to align and mount a small fan and associated sensor (and I'm not sure what the sensor does, except that it can turn the fan on). It would be interesting to have a company representative translate their patent claims into language a layperson could understand.
5,967,763 Positioning devices for a sensor element of a miniature fan
A positioning device for a miniature fan includes a coil seat including a number of annularly spaced poles each having a radially extending stem and a circumferential arcuate section. Each stem has a winding wound therearound, and each arcuate section has a first end edge and a second end edge. A circuit board is securely connected to the coil seat and includes a sensor element mounted thereon. The sensor element is located on a vertical line extending from one of the first end edge and the second end edge of one of the poles.
6,109,892 Positioning device for a sensor element of a miniature fan
A positioning device for a miniature fan includes a coil seat having an axle tube, an upper polar plate assembly, a lower polar plate assembly, and a winding mounted between the upper polar plate assembly and the lower polar plate assembly. A circuit board is mounted to the axle tube and includes a sensor element for activating a rotor. The sensor element is located on a vertical line extending from an end edge of the lower polar plate assembly along a direction parallel to a longitudinal axis of the axle tube.
6,114,785 Positioning device for a sensor element of a miniature fan
A positioning device for a miniature fan includes a coil seat having an axle tube, an upper polar plate assembly, a lower polar plate assembly, and a winding mounted between the upper polar plate assembly and the lower polar plate assembly. A circuit board is mounted to the axle tube and includes a sensor element for activating rotor. The sensor element is located on a line extending from an end edge of the upper polar plate assembly along a direction parallel to a longitudinal axis of the axle tube.
35 USC section 271(a):
(emphasis added)
Yes, if this patent holds up in court, Sunonwealth could theoretically sue you for using one of the cards with one of the fans in question! It's just not usually practical to sue the end users.
--
Ooh, moderator points! Five more idjits go to Minus One Hell!
Delenda est Windoze
Ooh, moderator points! Five more idjits go to Minus One Hell!
Delendae sunt RIAA, MPAA et Windoze
So instead they use a very high speed stepper motor and a circuit board to drive it.
That's why they cose $9 and not 90 cents.
Saying a CPU fan is a trivial device is not accurate.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
I'm sorry, but you can hardly call the speeds at which these fans rotate as "high speed." (Now if they only would make a turbine fan for a processor, that would be cool. :) ) Any 7 year old with a miniature motor kit could build one of these fans. Also, what is the most unreliable component in your system? The hard drive... The monitor... The processor or memory... No. The numerous fans throughout your system. I don't know how many fans I have replaced, but I can assure you it is more than the combined totals of the hard drives and memory. Do you work for these guys?
Sorry. Your comment makes a small fan sound like an engineering feat, when it isn't.
We take them for granted, but just think about what a chipset fan does...Runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (at least mine does), makes almost no noise, and only wears out after several years. That's at least 17,250 hours of use, continually spinning at 7200rpm.
Now consider that out of all the fan manufacturers, Sunon is well-known as a one of the best, supplying not only normal fans, but also ultra-high-output and/or super-quiet varieties.
Scoff scoff, just a fan.
And CmdrTaco is "just a programmer."
---
4-star general in a one-man army.
I don't think anyone agrees that patents should be completely abolished
Some people would disagree.
Either way, the real issue is the predatory practice. I patent something, wait until everybody else uses or develops the same technology and then I slap them with an infringement lawsuit.
This is pretty much blackmail, because it's not like the defendants can change the technology. They invested an awful lot of money in a technology they can't use anymore and they'll have to pay through the nose in 'royalties' to the so-called innovator.
This may not be the case here, but there are way too many examples. Rambus allowed SDRAM to become a memory standard and then decided it had a patent on it. AltaVista has just discovered it owns the very concept of a search engine. BT has decided after decades that it invented hyperlinks and is entitled to compensation from everybody. Gaming the system has gotten out of hand. Anytime some company sues the entire industry there's something suspicious up.
Someone needs to write a perl script to take this story, and s/x/y/g the names and technologies, and then feed every company and technology into it.
I know it's been mentioned before, but there's something better-- it covers far more than just patent lawsuits. That's right, folks, the slashdot story generator.
From personal experience, don't bother trying to respond to him about this stuff directly. He never reads it and doesn't care. Chris
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
I know that there are some wierd patent lawsuits on /., but where do we draw the line between good business and unfair maliciousness? I don't think anyone agrees that patents should be completely abolished, so somethings are patentable. Although it seems a little late for pushing for patent violation on the fan issue, we should definately try to keep in mind that some patents are real and should be respected.
-Moondog
- US5967763: Positioning devices for a sensor element of a miniature fan
- US6109892: Positioning device for a sensor element of a miniature fan
- US6114785: Positioning device for a sensor element of a miniature fan
Now it looks like they patented various iterations of a sensor element attached to a fan. To me it seems frivolous on the surface, but since I'm not into PC components I'm not a 100% sure since evrything seems obvious in hind sight.Has ANYONE (ok, I know at least one person has) considered the possiblity that Sunonwealth has actually patented new and significant technology, and that's what they're trying to protect? Is it just SLIGHTLY possible that ADDA, who has a really big black mark in the patent law courts already, might have infringed a valid and worthwhile patent again?
Come on people, at least find out what the patent is about before damning a company to the lowest depths of hell for defending it.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
What about constant operation high rotation speed motor coupled to heat resistant framework and resilient blade? What about a mechanism that is constantly working to keep your processor working, hardly ever breaks and doesn't shatter into millions of pieces despite spinning round and round for years exposed to temperature extremes. This is your typical piece of high quality engineering that you may believe anybody can make because its concept is so simple, but its the implementation that requires a professional and patentable approach. Engineers and designers deserve some respect, patents are the legalised form of that respect. I don't see any patented software or idea or obvious prior art silliness in this story, it really shouldn't be on slashdot, unless normal patent law suits are slashdot worthy.