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Microsoft FAT Patent Rejected

dkh2 writes "It's being reported other places as well but, there's a very nice story over at Groklaw about efforts by the Public Patent Foundation (PubPat) to get Microsoft's patent on FAT restricted or revoked. Bearing in mind that Microsoft still has right of appeal, The USPTO has rejected Microsofts FAT patent." Our earlier story reported on efforts to overturn this patent.

23 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. No FAT patent for Microsoft? by stretch0611 · · Score: 4, Funny
    But Microsoft products are full of FAT...

    Oh, I'm sorry, I actually meant they are full of BLOAT, not FAT.

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  2. Related News by knautilus316 · · Score: 5, Funny

    In related news, the US Patent Office also rejected Bill Gates' patent applications for fire and the wheel. ~Knautilus

  3. FAT Patent Rejected? by grunt107 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Guess MS's case was a little THIN. {Ahhh, I feel better now}

  4. Re:Excellent! by pbranes · · Score: 4, Funny
    They must have a huge turnover rate of new patent officers because it seems that stupid patents make it through constantly.

    I just broke amazon's patent by single-click the submit button to this post.

  5. MS will try anything for the shareholders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is pathetic! How this ridiculous license scheme would work with so much of the population obese is beyond me. And the people who would be forced to pay the most, would be the least likely to be able to defend themselves in court without the use of a small crane to leave the house.

  6. Hmmm Submitting Patents like Gamblers? by Yo+Grark · · Score: 5, Funny

    On a warm summer's evenin' about a patent bound for approvals,
    I called up the patent officers; they were too tired to speak.
    They just took turns a starin' at the leagal techno babble
    'til mind-numbing boredom overtook them, and errors began to creap.

    One said, son, I've made a life out of readin' people's patents,
    And knowin' what their prior arts were by the way they dotted their i's.
    So if you don't mind my sayin', I can see you're really reachin.
    For my sons university education, I'll give you some advice.

    So I met and wrote his man a cheque, and he looked the zero's that followed.
    Then he bummed a cigarette and asked me for a light.
    And the night got deathly quiet, and his face lost all expression.
    Said, if you're gonna play the game, boy, ya gotta learn to play it right.

    You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to appeal 'em,
    Know when to walk away and know when to sue.
    You never count your patents when you're sittin' at the judges table.
    There'll be time enough for countin' when the approval's done.

    Now ev'ry patent leecher knows that the secret to survivin'
    Is knowin' what to sell off and knowing what to keep.
    'cause in ev'ry merger's a winner and ev'ry buyout a loser,
    And the best that you can hope for is to grab patents while people sleep.

    So when he'd finished speakin', he turned back towards the window,
    Crushed out his cigarette and faded off to sleep.
    And somewhere in the darkness the patent officer, he got even.
    But in his final words I found a crooked officer I could keep.

    You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to appeal 'em,
    Know when to walk away and know when to sue.
    You never count your patents when you're sittin' at the judges table.
    There'll be time enough for countin' when the approval's done.

    You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to appeal 'em,
    Know when to walk away and know when to sue.
    You never count your patents when you're sittin' at the judges table.
    There'll be time enough for countin' when the approval's done.

    With nods to Kenny Rogers

    Yo Grark

    --
    Canadian Bred with American Buttering
  7. Damnit!!! by lcorc79 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Damnit!!! I was really hoping MS would get a patent on FAT, so I could tell my ass it was infringing and draft up a cease & desist .....

    --
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  8. Re:VFAT Patent by HermDog · · Score: 3, Funny
    i think i should remind everyone, this patent is not on the FAT filesystem itself, but the VFAT extension for long file names. (which, if you know how it works, is nothing innovative)


    I found the implementation of long file names on VFAT inspirational myself. When I saw the details behind it shortly before Win95 debuted, I was inspired to look at this Linux thing I had heard about.
    --
    JADBP
  9. Re:This is stupid by gcaseye6677 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Stupid troll. They're not saying that nobody should be able to have patents. They're saying you can't patent something that you released to the public over 10 years ago.

  10. Huh, what? by slaad · · Score: 5, Funny

    Woa....they can reject patents? ;)

    --


    ~Warning!~ The above is encrypted using rot676!
  11. Whewww by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I am a little overweight and I have some frieds that eat too much and don't get enough exercise. I know we will all be relieved to hear that we don't have to pay royalties on our cellulite.

  12. FAT lady sings by bstadil · · Score: 2, Funny
    They can still appeal the ruling so it's not over until the FAT lady sings.

    --
    Help fight continental drift.
  13. MSWords -- A patened approach by theAmazing10.t · · Score: 5, Funny

    MSWords -- a patented approach for combining letters of the alphabet into meaningful units that can be "read" (for info on "reading", see MS patent 9997645, "A method for interpreting strings of alphabetic characters")

  14. I have a solution by Bin_jammin · · Score: 4, Funny

    What we need to do is fight fire with fire. For instance, I should take out a patent on ugly, then sue the holy hell out of Gates and Balmer. At $1 per degree of ugly, I could buy Peru.

  15. A patent... REJECTED? by Anonymous+Writer · · Score: 3, Funny

    The USPTO has rejected a patent? I can't seem to find a site that tells you the weather in hell, because I'm curious to see if it has frozen over.

    1. Re:A patent... REJECTED? by maxchaote · · Score: 2, Funny

      Here's the forecast.

  16. Please use correct implementation! by gosand · · Score: 4, Funny
    i think i should remind everyone, this patent is not on the FAT filesystem itself, but the VFAT extension for long file names. (which, if you know how it works, is nothing innovative)

    Don't you mean....

    i think i should remind everyone, this patent is not on the FAT files~1 itself, but the VFAT extens~1 for long file names. (which, if you know how it works, is nothing innova~1)

    --

    My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

  17. Windows Fat Reduction? by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 4, Funny

    So, with the MS Fat Patent rejected, does that mean we will see a new slimmer Windows OS?

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
  18. Prior Art by Vampyre_Dark · · Score: 2, Funny

    Aren't 95% of us North Americans FAT?

  19. Re:Excellent! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wait till I patent clicks 2-99, then you'll really be screwed!

  20. They got the Patent Nazi, I guess. by inertia187 · · Score: 1, Funny

    Patent Nazi: No patent for you, come back one year!

    --
    A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
  21. Don't celebrate yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    The SCO Group has just filed for a patent on cholesterol.

  22. Re:Not excellent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    balmer, quit trolling the forums nobody cares