[debian-knoppix] DOS boot image for syslinux -- MS patents
[a_wilson@mit.edu cited MS patents identified
in a MS press release, and there was discussion
about what they might cover.]
While it is true that the Microsoft press
release does say "FAT File System Technology
and Patent License", there is a contrast as
soon as you start reading the US patents
themselves that were cited in the release --
because these patents do not appear to make
any reference to file allocation tables in
their patent claims.
Neither does the one European patent
(EP 0 578 205) that corresponds to the
US patents named by MS in the release.
What the patent claims appear to be
concerned with is a "common name space
for long and short filenames", and/or
a "multiple file name referencing system".
The corresponding MS European patent
0578205 appears to be even more specific
than that. Its claims all appear to focus
on situations where there is "an operating
system using an os file name format and an
application using an application file name
format", and where files are referenced
via access to a B-tree that stores os
entries for the os formatted names, and
application entries for the application
formatted names.
(Several of the US patent claims are not
tied to the use of B-trees, however.)
Clearly these patents do not 'bite on' to
the simple presence of an FAT file system.
As has been mentioned already, FAT was
public knowledge for a long time, e.g.
before any priority date that can belong
to any still-unexpired patent in Europe
(priority date must be <= 21 years before
the present), so any European patent
claim that covers it now, must be invalid
because of a lack of novelty.
If a syslinux implementation relies on FAT
along with 8.3 filenames, it is certainly
hard in any case to see how these patents
could be in any way relevant.
Possibly also there can be ways to implement
long filenames in a FAT system, that do not
involve using any of the arrangements as
set out in MSoft's patent claims for
relating two kinds of filenames to each other.
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