Microsoft has announced Research In Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry smartphones, has licensed the company’s exFAT file system for certain devices.
exFAT or extended file allocation table is the successor to Microsoft’s widely used file allocation table (FAT) file system. It has been tailored for mobile devices as it enhances speed of data transfers over flash based memory chips and also allows for larger files.
In the scheme of things, it appears to be a rather minor deal, but it is a clear case of Microsoft making noise about its IP portfolio and its importance. In fact, Microsoft has been embroiled in a heated patent dispute with Motorola which has implemented the FAT file system on some of its phones without licensing it from Microsoft. This could be a case of Microsoft just reminding Android OEMs that they better license technology or otherwise face lawsuits.
That said, Microsoft already has signed major licensing agreements with almost 80 percent of the Android OEMs including Samsung, but these agreements are not related to the exFAT format.
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