Lian Li is suing Phanteks for alleged patent infringement on daisy-chained fans

Lian Li is suing a rival PC component manufacturer, Phanteks, for patent infringement, claiming that its new fans infringe on one of its patents involving daisy-chaining technology for RGB fans.

Lian Li told the Dutch company (via OC3D) in May 2023 that its D30 series fans violated its intellectual property rights. Lian Li alleges that Phanteks ignored the warning and continued to market and sell the fans.  

On September 8, Lian Li officially filed the lawsuit in the California Central District Court seeking a permanent injunction against Phanteks, which would halt the sales of the fans in question, and damages.

We saw a lot of this daisy chaining fan tech at Computex this year from companies like Corsair, where you can connect multiple RGB fans together and attach them to the controller with just one connector, cutting on cable clutter and making it more PC builder-friendly. 

Lian Li  was awarded the patent in 2020 for an "illumination fan connectable with at least one illumination fan for a computer." The Taiwanese manufacturer claims that Phanteks' new fans copied this patented design. 

Should the lawsuit be successful, Lian Li's competitors will require a licensing agreement to sell RGB PC fans using this daisy-chain technology. 

The lawsuit was just filed a few days ago, and the two companies may resolve things without going to trial. There's yet to be word from Lian Li if it has sent similar letters to other hardware manufacturers over the same issue.