[ros-dev] Patent on FAT

[D. Hazelton]

On Friday 13 January 2006 04:45, Wesley Parish wrote:
> On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 03:16, Simon Cornelius P. Umacob wrote:
> > Richard wrote:
> > >  Which would you rather have, pay a
> > > small fee to use the patented features or not use the patented features
> > > at all?
> >
> > Fight or disregard the patent? :)
>
> We should ask the FSF for their opinion on this matter - I think Moglen's
> likely to come up with some better ideas than I for one, can come up with.
>
> And as I said, the idea of long file names - hidden in a separate file -
> was in use for at least 5 years before Microsoft came out with MS Win95. 
> So the patent is bogus, fraudulent and more an attempt to bail people up
> like highwaymen and rob them than anything to do with legitimate business.

Go ahead and contact the FSF - they are likely to tell you to take the route 
the FreeType project has done. Research I've been doing since learning of the 
USPTO ruling shows that the three patents confirmed recently (about LFN's) 
were confirmed because they are not about storing LFN's in a separate file, 
bu in the same directory as part of the actual record keeping data of the 
filesystem.

More research also shows that MS has three _other_ patents on the FAT system 
although I have been unable to locate the text of these patents. I will keep 
looking - I've been waiting for ReactOS to become a stable enough environment 
for me to be able to suggest it as an alternative... Though I only recently 
learned of it.


DRH