Comments on: TRS-DOS as possible prior art for MS patent on exFAT, and reference request https://whats.all.this.brouhaha.com/2012/09/16/trs-dos-as-possible-prior-art-for-ms-patent-on-exfat-and-reference-request/ miscellaneous musings and random rantings Sat, 28 Nov 2015 09:12:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9 By: Eric https://whats.all.this.brouhaha.com/2012/09/16/trs-dos-as-possible-prior-art-for-ms-patent-on-exfat-and-reference-request/comment-page-1/#comment-83772 Tue, 16 Sep 2014 08:37:19 +0000 http://whats.all.this.brouhaha.com/?p=987#comment-83772 I found another instance of a file system using a hash table for fast file lookup, the HP 64000 development system, introduced in 1979. The directory format is described on page 10 and 12 of the October 1980 issue of the Hewlett-Packard Journal.

]]> By: Eric https://whats.all.this.brouhaha.com/2012/09/16/trs-dos-as-possible-prior-art-for-ms-patent-on-exfat-and-reference-request/comment-page-1/#comment-34947 Wed, 19 Sep 2012 10:22:53 +0000 http://whats.all.this.brouhaha.com/?p=987#comment-34947 I have no idea what you’re referring to by “fast accesses”. There may well be other file systems that used file name hashes prior to TRS-DOS, but I don’t have any concrete information about them.

I don’t have any “political weight” whatsoever. The most I can do is try to share information about prior art so that it is available to anyone who is able to request a reexamination of the patent, or to litigate it.

Note that the particular patent I reference has other claims for which TRS-DOS may not serve as prior art, and also that this was not the only patent application relating to exFAT. I wouldn’t count on the patents being invalidated any time soon.

]]> By: Teuxe https://whats.all.this.brouhaha.com/2012/09/16/trs-dos-as-possible-prior-art-for-ms-patent-on-exfat-and-reference-request/comment-page-1/#comment-34946 Wed, 19 Sep 2012 10:09:39 +0000 http://whats.all.this.brouhaha.com/?p=987#comment-34946 I am also upset by such patent acceptance. I am pretty sure some other filesystems may also already make use of such hash tables to boost accesses to files in a hierarchy; hash tables sounds so close to “fast accesses”… if someone has any information?

The subsidiary question is also: if you get such documentation, do you have enough political weight to break this Microsoft patent? Who should we address the claim to? (The US patent office is less competent in judging of the legality of deposited patents, when a lot of money is on -or even under- the table.)

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