main
Report a problem

USPTO to Review Microsoft FAT Patent

WishX   on 13 June 2004 - 16:21 · 7 comments & 665 views

Advertisement (Why?)
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has agreed to a request that it reexamine a patent granted to Microsoft covering the FAT (File Allocation Table) file system used in Windows.

A non-profit group called The Public Patent Foundation asked the USPTO in April to revoke the patent on grounds that FAT has become a ubiquitous format found in numerous devices. FAT is also used by the open source community to provide communication between Windows and UNIX-based systems.

Microsoft announced last year that it was looking to license FAT, sparking fears Redmond would wield its legal prowess against the fledgling Linux market.

View: Complete Article
News source: BetaNews

Post a comment · Send to friend Comments · There are 7 additional comments

Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!

Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.

Advertisement (Why?)