Plot thickens over Microsoft's FAT patent

Microsoft is cheering the latest comments from the examiner that is evaluating one of the patents the software maker has for the FAT file format. That patent is being challenged by the Public Patent Foundation.

The patent office agreed to a re-examination of that patent in June and last September issued a preliminary rejection of the patent.

An August 16 report that has been posted to the patent office web site, the, said that the examiner "stated that although he has not yet considered the written arguments presented regarding these issues... he suspected that in the view of the arguments presented in the interviews, the rejections of record would not be maintained."

The comments are not, themselves, a ruling. The examiner could reverse course after looking at written comments or find new reasons to reject Microsoft's patents. However the software maker was nonetheless pleased.

"The latest statement from the USPTO is promising, especially since the reexamination process is coming closer to completion," Microsoft director of intellectual property licensing David Kaefer said in a statement to News.com.

A representative for the Public Patent Foundation was not immediately available for comment.