微软庞大的专利布局

就在昨天，微软的一封官方新闻稿正式宣布：就Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT)这项文件系统专利与知名日本生产商夏普电子达成协议。尽管更深层的财务协议并未被披露，但毫无疑问，通过这种专利授权的方法来与Android原始设备制造商进行利润丰厚的授权交易，成为了微软打入Android机器人森林的一剂良方。上月，低端Android平板设备制造商Aluratek和Coby同样与微软达成了类似的授权协议，据说三星与HTC也加入到了这条队伍中来。 那么这项文件系统专利的价值究竟在哪里呢？它最早的历史可以追溯到2006年，最先从Windows Embedded CE 6.0这套嵌入式系统中导入，在Windows Vista SP1中得以延伸。它的直接优势就在于，突破了FAT 32文件系统单一文件小于3GB的限制，并可扩展至更大的磁盘大小，并比NTFS格式消耗更少的硬盘空间。 根据腾讯数码的一篇报道称，微软以这种授权方式从Android生态中净入帐6亿美元。微软的这项专利授权协议，几乎涵盖了在美国销售的一半以上的Android智能手机，并且微软能还在每一台Android销售中得到利润提成。如果真是如此，微软在移动领域的营收岂不大半来自于此专利？不过，似乎近期业界对于专利的敏感程度越来越高。早在今年初，微软就被控诉在制造Xbox机时侵犯了摩托罗拉移动在特定视频压缩软件领域的专利权，并且初步认定为微软败诉。苹果和三星之间的世纪专利案依然还停留在它的长跑进程中，并且还破天荒的引出了一批苹果高管出庭作证。那么这些长久的专利战究竟会走向何方？是就此破裂还是握手言和？好消息是，据BBC的消息，国际电信联盟(ITU)将在 10 月 10 日在瑞士日内瓦召开一次专利会议，将各大知名的智能设备厂商汇聚在一起，讨论如何解决当下专利战混乱的局面，维护科技生态链的健康发展。 Japanese manufacturer Sharp has agreed to license an important file system patent from Microsoft for use in its Android phones. While financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, it forms part of Microsoft's broader strategy of targeting Android OEMs for lucrative licensing deals — last month, low-end tablet manufacturers Aluratek and Coby both signed on the dotted line, joining big names such as Samsung and HTC. Known as Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT), the technology covered by this particular patent was developed specifically for flash storage, and was first released along with Windows Embedded CE 6.0 back in 2006. ExFAT overcomes a file size limit of 4GB inherent in the older FAT32 system, and is therefore useful for storing high-quality videos and other media on mobile devices. The list of companies which already license the patent from Microsoft includes Japanese firms such as Canon, Panasonic, and Sony, as well as European and US businesses like TomTom and Aspen Avionics. 来自wp8论坛新锋网：http://www.xapcn.com/ http://bbs.xapcn.com/