[Bradford] Microsoft's FAT patent finally struck down in EU due to prior art from Linus Torvalds

[Alan D Barnard]

I suspect Forbes has got the story all wrong. FAT is probably only 
incidental to mobile phones. The Microsoft patent licence probably does 
not even state what patents are included; they hardly want anyone 
working on work-arounds. FAT was a good one to include from Microsoft's 
viewpoint, it has already been upheld in court. I very much doubt that 
Android phone prices will be coming down as a result of this.

It is good news for those in the EU who were thinking about needing a 
FAT licence alone.

Talking of FAT: I have been renaming a good number of PDF files to add 
the document number and title whilst retaining the random number that I 
downloaded it under (I like to be able to find things again). Clever me 
found that I could include CR's to break up the name into logical parts. 
Stupid me found that FAT on my FLASH drive (I wanted to take the files 
to work) would not take them. Thunar File Manager enabled me to bulk 
rename them - clever son.

Why do we rejoice in Microsoft's misfortunes?

On 07/12/13 11:54, Brian A wrote:
> I was already aware of the Microsoft tax on Android phones. I didn't
> know the specific reason was FAT, I thought it wasn't stated
> specifically, which I think is what Microsoft has done with smaller
> companies. For example: We have some patented software that you are
> using, do you want to pay us a fee or would you like us to take you to
> court and ruin you?
>
> So this is good news, it would be better if everywhere went the same as
> New Zealand and simply banned software patents.
> Brian
>
>
> On 7 December 2013 10:43, Nick Rhodes <nick at ngrhodes.co.uk
> <mailto:nick at ngrhodes.co.uk>> wrote:
>
>     http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/12/06/german-patent-ruling-threatens-microsofts-windows-phone-earnings-from-android/
>
>
>     "In yet another round of the patent fights going on over smart
>     phones we find that Microsoft has just been dealt a blow over the
>     revenues it gains from Android hand sets. Yes, read that again,
>     Microsoft MSFT +0.94% makes money out of many to most of the Android
>     handsets out there. It’s a substantial chunk of revenue too. On the
>     grapevine we’ve been told that HTC pays $5 a handset, Samsung
>     perhaps as much as $10. We don’t know the total number as Microsoft
>     doesn’t break it out in their accounts but books it in the same
>     division as the Windows Phone licence revenues. And we’re all pretty
>     sure that the Android royalties are larger in that division than the
>     Windows Phone revenues."
>
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