Microsoft FAT patents

Microsoft has a number of patents on how to deal with filename in their commonly used FAT filesystem. These patents have been issued in the USA, Germany, and surely a long list of other countries.

In the USA

The FAT patents granted to Microsoft in the USA include:

• US5,579,517 "The '517 patent"
• US5,758,352 (The EPO equivalent is EP0618550)

Timeline

• December 2003: MS starts threatening people
• September 2004: The '517 patent is rejected thanks to the work of PubPat and others.
• January 2006: The '517 patent is reinstated
• January 2009: Microsoft uses its FAT patents against TomTom

In Europe

The patents granted by the European Patent Office are:

• EP0618550 - upheld in Germany, see below (equivalent to US5,758,352)
•  ?

Upheld in Germany

(See: X ZR 27/07 (2010, April, Germany))

• German appeal court upholds Microsoft FAT patent, The H, April 2010 (also: slashdot story)
• Federal Patent Court declares FAT patent of Microsoft null and void, The H, April 2007 (also: slashdot story)
• German original: WINDOWS - Dateiverwaltung beruht auf, patentfähiger Erfindung (English translations^[?]: Google, bing translator)
• German original: Text of the appeal court decision (English translations^[?]: Google, bing translator)

Related pages on ESP Wiki

• Microsoft
• Microsoft vs. TomTom - where MS forced TomTom to pay for patents, seemingly including their FAT patents
• Litigation
• Example software patents

External links

• PubPat: Microsoft FAT Patent (page out of date)
• Groklaw report on A patch to remove VFAT filename conversion from the Linux kernel,
  • the LKML thread
  • A related FAQ produced by Andrew Tridgell and Linux Foundation
• Microsoft's IP chief on TomTom, Linux and patents, techflash, Feb 2009