GregNews comment of MS employee on FAT patents

[Hartmut Pilch <phm@a2e.de>]

seems to downplay the role of the patents in the FAT license.

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    -  COMMENT FROM MICROSOFT EMPLOYEE ON THEIR FAT PATENTS

A comment from a Microsoft employee on their FAT patents, which I noted
in recent PATNEWS, is floating around the net.  Here is the message.

>From: "Jason Matusow" <jasonma@windows.microsoft.com>
>Date: January 5, 2004 11:19:48 AM PST
>Subject: RE: [IP] more on Fat file patent
>
>Feel free to forward this -
>
>A couple of thoughts come to mind which might prove useful.  The first
>thought relates to why we're providing this license in the first place.
>It is important to recognize that despite the broad use of FAT systems
>today, compatibility problems still arise between devices and systems.
>We've heard this from consumers and from companies that sell products
>that are intended to work well with Windows (eg: digital cameras).  To
>address this issue, our licensing program provides rights to patents and
>trade secrets.  The trade secret rights relate to sample source code,
>Microsoft's FAT file system specification and other documentation. This
>information can enhance compatibility.  Many people have not focused on
>the trade secret elements of the license, but the licensing discussions
>we've had with companies so far lead us to believe that licensees
>associate a good deal of value to these trade secrets.
>
>The second point I'd highlight is that the licensing program today is
>structure primarily to respond to interest from solid state memory
>device manufacturers and consumer electronics companies, so these
>companies clearly do see value in this information. There might be
>interest beyond these sectors, but that's the focus today.
>
>I hope this helps.
>
>Jason

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-18979927
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
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