[Gllug] FAT patent

[Richard Jones]

On Thu, Jan 12, 2006 at 02:39:37PM +0000, Dan Stevens (IAmAI) wrote:
> Does this apply to FAT 32 as well?

First of all there are two patents.  Together they cover the method (I
believe "hack" is a more appropriate term) used to encode long
filenames into the 8.3 short filenames on FAT.  None of this would
matter if Microsoft had used a reasonable disk format in the first
place.  I believe from looking briefly at the claims that if you don't
use the long filenames then you are not infringing.

The patents probably don't apply in the EU.

The method used is bleeding obvious.

Microsoft probably won't assert them (yet) against Linux because they
don't want the bad publicity, nor to rock the anti-trust boat so soon,
nor to stir up sentiment against software patents until they've
managed to get them through in Europe.

You may have a defence of laches (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laches)
because Microsoft took about 10 years to begin enforcing its claims.

You probably don't want to test any of the above in court because even
when you win, you'll end up having spent huge amounts of money.

All the more reason to pay attention (and donate money) to
organisations such as FFII, PUBPAT (in the US), and the Open Rights
Group [when are they going to get their sign-up process in place!].

If you want an open file system format which works across operating
systems, take a look at UDF.
(http://homepage.mac.com/wenguangwang/myhome/udf.html)

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, CTO Merjis Ltd.
Merjis - web marketing and technology - http://merjis.com
Team Notepad - intranets and extranets for business - http://team-notepad.com
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