Microsoft’s file system patent upheld: ZDNet Australia: News: Software
Saying any part of the FAT file system is “novel and non-obvious” is rather like saying being stabbed in the eye with a fork is “novel and a good way to spend a sunday afternoon”.
Seriously – what the?
I’m really glad I work for a company that opposes software patents.
Thanks to Pia for the links.
FAT is based diirectly on the CP/M-80, CP/M-68k and CP/M-86 filesystems, and shares many features in the layout of the directory entires (basically a CP/M-80 FCB image on disk) as a result of that. Gary Kildall, Intergalactic Digital Research and co should have prior art.
Also, DR-DOS is a parallel implementation of FAT, and has existed without complaint from Microsoft for 19 years. I don’t see how Microsoft could be granted a patent on FAT in the face of that.