IAANAL (I also am not a lawyer), but the earliest patent listed on http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/ip/tech/fat.asp was applied for in 1995 and granted in 1996. I suspect that the late date will make it harder to enforce. Eric On Thursday 04 December 2003 16:23, Matt Murphy wrote: > > I am not a lawyer but i seem to remember reading somewhere that if one > > does not enforce their patents and the technology becomes mainstream they > > lose the ability to enforce the patents. > > That's copyright and trademark, I don't think it's the same with patents. > (and I'd assume M$'s legal dept would have thought about this a bit before > deciding to pursue it) > > Matt > > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list