Microsoft FAT Patent Upheld

theodp writes "After initially rejecting Microsoft's File Allocation Table (FAT) patents, the USPTO has ruled them valid. From the article: 'Microsoft has won a debate where they were the only party allowed to speak, in that the patent re-examination process bars the public from rebutting arguments made by Microsoft, said unimpressed Public Patent Foundation President Dan Ravicher.'"

Comments

only they were allowed to speak?

[know1]

that just reminds me of the clown court from transformers the movie

next move

[pintomp3]

will be interesting to see if they just tuck it into their already fat (sorry) patent portfolio or actually try to collect on it. i doubt the later will be the case, as FAT so old and is already used everywhere by everyone. i don't even see much use as a pre-emptive patent. i can't see anyone suing anyone for using it.

What if...

[islanduniverse]

Well what's to stop manufacturers putting in the instructions that after purchasing such a device that the customer has to format it themselves? If the device needs software, surely that comes on a CD anyway?

Patent is for *implementation*

[Nimey]

FFS. This patent is over Microsoft's /implementation/ of FAT, as in the code. This has been covered already in previous Slashwanking. If manufacturers don't want to pay the fee, they can gin up their own FAT implementation or use Linux's free cleanroom implementation, just as long as they comply with the GPL.

I know it's too much to expect readers of this site to RTFA, but still.