[plug] M$ to patent FAT and charge for it

[Steve Boak]

On Fri, 5 Dec 2003 16:27, you wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 05, 2003 at 04:03:30PM +0800, Steve Boak wrote:
> > This sounds trivial, as in we just stop using FAT, right?
> >
> > Unfortunately not - as I understand, being a long time digital
> > camera user,  almost all digital cameras and associated card
> > readers etc use the FAT file system. Trying to change to another
> > file system when there is currently literally hundreds of millions
> > of devices out there based on FAT already is not going to be easy.
> >
> > M$ has a captive market.
>
> No they don't. In order to obtain a Patent, one must have an
> *inventive* step in the _device_.
>
>   a) FAT is not a device.
>     (Just like an integer!)
> and
>   b) there's no inventive step.
>      (Technology was natural development of prior art)

True, I hadn't considered the position of the patent not being valid in the 
first place. But they do appear to have been _granted_ patents, although I 
have not read them myself. Not that that would help much, I doubt that I 
would understand them anyway :)

Steve