Microsoft FAT patents

Microsoft has a number of patents on how to deal with filename in their commonly used FAT filesystem.

These include:

• US5,579,517
• US5,758,352

Timeline

• December 2003: MS starts threatening people[1]
• Rejected in September 2004[2] thanks to the work of PubPat[3] and others.
• Reinstated in January 2006: Microsoft's file system patent upheld

See also

• Microsoft
• Microsoft vs. TomTom - where MS forced TomTom to pay for patents, seemingly including their FAT 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• PubPat: Microsoft FAT Patent (page out of date)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