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Cova · 02-26-2003, 10:04 AM

I hate to get involved in this arguement, but as far as patenting Cathars block goes, assuming I did make 1000 of them and sell them (in the country he patented them in) and he tried to sue me, his patent would also not hold up in court (if it was ever allowed in the first place). There's a thing in patent-law called prior-art - basically all I have to do to dismiss cathars hypothetical patent is prove that someone, somewhere has used small channels for cooling before. Just looking at a standard 1U copper HSF would probably do it in that case - lots of tiny copper fins/channels with a fan blowing a fluid straight down into them and out the sides - I'm using that design but with a different fluid - and I haven't even had to leave the CPU cooling industry (which is a relatively VERY small industry) to find an example. Now a patent could get more and more and more specific to try and rule out all these other examples of prior-art, but all that does is make the patent less usefull as I just have to make a small change somewhere to be not included in its scope anymore. Cathar doesn't stand a hope in hell in stoping people copying it if they want to, and he knows it, all he asks is to be fair, and I personally respect that and wouldn't buy a block from someone that was out to make money from using his design (which is different from say morphlings block which he isn't out to make money from, and IMHO is different enough to co-exist, as I prefer his 2-barb solution)

To get back on topic - have you considered 2 acrylic layers on that radeon block? I'm thinking for lowest profile have a very top layer with 2 barbs coming in the edge (it would be a thick layer - perhaps glue a few layers together before drilling/milling to make a single thick piece) going to thie mid-point, and then exiting the bottom of that layer, the next layer would line up those bottom-holes and form a nice corner in the channel to prevent it being too restrictive as the flow is re-directed down towards the core (and perhaps also angled in towards the center), and at the bottom would be the channels. I suppose it could be done with only 2 layers, but I think it would end up being really restrictive in the area where the water makes the 90 from coming in the side to down to the copper and then another 90 from towards the copper to parallel to the copper. It would definatly be very turbulent in that area as well.

02-26-2003, 10:04 AM	#18
Cova Cooling Savant Join Date: May 2002 Location: Canada Posts: 247	I hate to get involved in this arguement, but as far as patenting Cathars block goes, assuming I did make 1000 of them and sell them (in the country he patented them in) and he tried to sue me, his patent would also not hold up in court (if it was ever allowed in the first place). There's a thing in patent-law called prior-art - basically all I have to do to dismiss cathars hypothetical patent is prove that someone, somewhere has used small channels for cooling before. Just looking at a standard 1U copper HSF would probably do it in that case - lots of tiny copper fins/channels with a fan blowing a fluid straight down into them and out the sides - I'm using that design but with a different fluid - and I haven't even had to leave the CPU cooling industry (which is a relatively VERY small industry) to find an example. Now a patent could get more and more and more specific to try and rule out all these other examples of prior-art, but all that does is make the patent less usefull as I just have to make a small change somewhere to be not included in its scope anymore. Cathar doesn't stand a hope in hell in stoping people copying it if they want to, and he knows it, all he asks is to be fair, and I personally respect that and wouldn't buy a block from someone that was out to make money from using his design (which is different from say morphlings block which he isn't out to make money from, and IMHO is different enough to co-exist, as I prefer his 2-barb solution) To get back on topic - have you considered 2 acrylic layers on that radeon block? I'm thinking for lowest profile have a very top layer with 2 barbs coming in the edge (it would be a thick layer - perhaps glue a few layers together before drilling/milling to make a single thick piece) going to thie mid-point, and then exiting the bottom of that layer, the next layer would line up those bottom-holes and form a nice corner in the channel to prevent it being too restrictive as the flow is re-directed down towards the core (and perhaps also angled in towards the center), and at the bottom would be the channels. I suppose it could be done with only 2 layers, but I think it would end up being really restrictive in the area where the water makes the 90 from coming in the side to down to the copper and then another 90 from towards the copper to parallel to the copper. It would definatly be very turbulent in that area as well.