U.S. Patent Office Shoots Down Ultra's Modular PSU Patent

Posted 02/22/2011 at 9:45am | by Paul Lilly

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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office put to rest a three-year dispute between Ultra Products, now a part of the Streak Products division of Systemax, and several power supply makers by rejecting Ultra's claim regarding modular PSU design patents, Softpedia.com reports. The USPTO came to the conclusion after seeing examples of the technology being used in prior PSUs.

"As a part of its decision, the USPTO accepted 37 of 49 arguments advanced by Antec, based on numerous prior art references, ranging from technical specifications to Internet product reviews," Daniel S. Mount, counsel for the alliance.

Ultra had claimed several PSU makers breached its patent, including Antec, Enermax, FSP, Mushkin, Seasonic, Tagan, and others, none of which paid Ultra a licensing fee. Back in 2008, Ultra filed suit against nearly ever modular PSU maker selling units in the U.S., asking for triple damages at the time. However, HP had already filed a similar modular patent dating back to April 2000, thus prompting a legal alliance between HP, Antec, and others.