I don't think it will ever be about patents, or who invented what, largely as the enthusiast watercooling market is so small that the cost of maintaining patents would far outweigh any profits made.
It is more an issue of giving credit where it is due. Cathar, as far as I know, was the first person in the enthusiast scene to combine two existing principles, microfins and jet impingement, to produce a waterblock showing admirable performance. No one in the enthusiast market can claim to have "invented" many of the techniques currently used, as they have all been used in commercial cooling applications. However, they have shown the nouse to apply them to our little field of "expertise". If you come up with a new way to use an existing application resulting in imporved performance, then you deserve the credit.
By the sharing of these ideas, other people may come up with their own variations on the theme, further enhancing the performance, and provided they don't run off and try and take all the credit for the original design, there shouldn't be a problem. This is surely the best way for watercooling to advance, by the sharing of ideas (everyone has them), and provided people acknowledge those who make these advances, then everyone should be happy.
What is not right is for a commercial watercooling company to rip from these public forums, and patent them, claiming them as their own. This shows a certain sence of greed and selfishness, as the original inventor is rarely credited.
This is by no means the same thing as someone making a handful of blocks for a few mates, where the price paid reflects the effort put into the production more than an attempt to make a considerable profit. I don't believe Morphling ever tried to take credit for this design, as it is a mere tweak of that proposed by cathar.
On that note, may I suggest that we put all this to rest, as has clearly been done over at OCAU, by the deletion of threads where the topic got out of hand, and return this thread to its original topic of Morphlings block.
Sorry if I've gone on for a bit. Just my feelings on the issue.
8-ball
