funsec mailing list archives
RE: Federal Patent Court declares FAT patent of Microsoft nulland void
From: "Larry Seltzer" <Larry () larryseltzer com>
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 12:07:59 -0500
I'm skeptical of most software patents, but Microsoft's implementation of long file names on FAT volumes is pretty clever, solved a real problem and was superior to and different from alternatives proposed at the time. The article is a little unclear on the basis for invalidating the patent, but I think it's saying that the court found it obvious. That's a bad interpretation because there were several parallel efforts to implement long file names on FAT (such as in OS/2) and they were all different and inferior. Larry Seltzer eWEEK.com Security Center Editor http://security.eweek.com/ http://blog.eweek.com/blogs/larry%5Fseltzer/ Contributing Editor, PC Magazine larryseltzer () ziffdavis com -----Original Message----- From: funsec-bounces () linuxbox org [mailto:funsec-bounces () linuxbox org] On Behalf Of TheGesus Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 11:48 AM To: FunSec LList Subject: [funsec] Federal Patent Court declares FAT patent of Microsoft nulland void Don't get all excited... it's Germany.... The Federal Patent Court has declared a Microsoft patent on the file allocation system File Allocation Table (FAT) invalid for the Federal Republic of Germany. The claim in question is the protection claim granted by the European Patent Office under EP 0618540 for a "common namespace for long and short filenames." This in turn is based on the US patent No. 5,758,352. At the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (GPTO) the patent is protected under DE 69429378. According to a recently published decision (PDF file) by the 2nd Division of the Federal Patent Court bearing the file number: 2Ni 2/05 (EU) and dated October 26, 2006 the claims made are "not based on inventive activity." more here... http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/86141 _______________________________________________ Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list. _______________________________________________ Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.
Current thread:
- Federal Patent Court declares FAT patent of Microsoft null and void TheGesus (Mar 02)
- RE: Federal Patent Court declares FAT patent of Microsoft nulland void Larry Seltzer (Mar 02)