Microsoft FAT patent to be Reexamined by the USPTO

In this week's OG notices was an Ex Parte Reexamination request for U.S. Patent No. 5,579,517. The patent, entitled "Common Name Space for Long and Short Filenames" is owned by Microsoft (MS). The Reexam was requested by the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT). A press release dated April 16, 2004 from PUBPAT details their request. The patent covers FAT technology (the file systems of DOS and Windows). The software industry was/is concerned that enforcing/licensing the patent could likely impact digital camera manufacturers, flash memory card manufacturers, etc. (Slashdot). Microsoft has a page devoted to the FAT File System Technology and Patent License that further expalins the technology.

This PUBPAT project is similar to EFF's Patent Busting Project.