Wednesday, April 9th 2008
Ultra Products Sues Power Supply Manufacturers
There's not a lot of information on the web regarding this case filled in the Florida Middle District Court, but it seems that Ultra Products is now searching for legal ways to sue a whole bunch of power supply manufacturers that infringe on of their patents for modular power supplies. The companies that are being sued by Ultra Products include: Antec, Corsair Memory, Enhance Electronics, E-Power Technology/PCMCIS, FSP Group USA, Koolance USA, Mushkin, OCZ Technology, Sea Sonic Electronics, Silverstone Technology, SPI Electronic, Spire-Bytecom Fanner Corporation, Tagan Technology, Thermaltake Technology, Topower Computer Industrial, Topower Computer U.S.A., Zalman Technology Company and pretty much every company that has manufactured modular PSUs.
Source:
JonnyGURU.com
114 Comments on Ultra Products Sues Power Supply Manufacturers
The Silverstone modular I have has plugs actually on the case (loose, not attached to a circut board)
I dont think that would be a copy. But using a PCB to attach the plugs to I think is what Ultra patented.
Here's the abstract.
United States Patent 7,313,000 Fiorentino , et al. December 25, 2007 Power distribution system for a personal computer
Abstract The present invention relates to power supplies, methods of installing power supplies, power distribution systems and methods of installing power distribution systems. More particularly, one embodiment of the present invention relates to a power distribution system for receiving AC current from an AC current source and for distributing DC current inside of a computer case.
Inventors: Fiorentino; Carl (Miami, FL), Kuo; Chih-Wei (Taipei, TW) Assignee: Ultra Products, Inc. (Miami, FL)
Appl. No.: 11/065,617 Filed: February 23, 2005
As you can see, the TigerDirect Kingpin Carl is the inventor.
As an engineer with my own patent, it appears Carl has a rock solid case against all who sell in the U.S. and possibly abroad. That is why patents exist - to promote and protect inventions.
See attached image from page 2 of the patent.
Check out the patent date - Dec 2007 - Carl has been building his case for the past 3 months - no Patent Attorney would touch it if it was not golden!
Regards,
jtleon
Not nearly as bad as Powmax, I'll give them that.
(It's still NIB)
thats his avatar after he does that
jk man dont take that offensively
Yeah, back on topic guys. We can bring this PSU shocking thing to another forum :D
Or, we could start one in the postwhore thread @ TechFuzion hehe
There's no mention of "plugs and sockets inside" the PSU... certainly no "AC" sockets... other than Ultra describing how the product is used.
In patents, to narrow a claim, you not only have to describe what exactly you're patenting, but you have to describe it in context to the device in which the patented item is being used with. Furthermore, you have to describe the application of the device and how it is used over all. So that includes describing how it's a PSU, that converts AC to DC, installed inside a PC, powering peripherals, etc. So if you only skim the patent, I imagine you could walk away with the conception of "Oh crap, Ultra just patented a power supply with cables that unplug... how can they get away with that?"
Like I said, they didn't patent the "idea" of modularizing a power supply. They patented the interface on the housing of the PSU that the cables plug into. That is something that had not been done prior to the patent being filed in 2004. If you go to the US ITC website, search by date, put in the date of the complaint (04/04/08) and then scroll down to the Ultra suit and click to show "more sections" you'll see 17 100 page scanned PDF's of all of the "exhibits" which include prior art that LOOKS modular, but are not used in the same application, or claim to be modular but do not make the product modular in the same fashion. That's another thing you have to do when you patent something and that's reveal and potential prior art and explain why your patent is not actually related to that prior design.
It's not a "patent of plugs and sockets" and if you actually read and understood the patent you'd understand why I think you're response is a bit off base.
Now beer me.... :toast:
But I do agree that sales might be down or something. I mean, I have no factual data on that or anything, but I was reading the ITC complaint and they're actually suing one of their own OEM's. :eek: That's no way to maintain good business relations. Andyson is listed as a defendant because they made modular PSU's for Aerocool, Hiper and Sunbeam (none of the companies are in the market anymore either... are they???) that infringed on the Ultra patent... yet Andyson is also the company that makes the X3 series of power supplies.
WTF?!? :wtf: