Redmond, Washington — After announcing a cross-licensing deal with Amazon.com, Redmond, software major Microsoft has signed yet another Intellectual Property (IP) licensing deal this week into its expanding patent bag, this time with consumer electronics firm Panasonic over employing its Extended File Allocation Table, aka exFAT, format.
Under the deal, Panasonic will gain entree into Microsoft’s “exFAT” — a file system technology, which is developed to handle rich audio and multimedia files and provide more seamless data portability across various electronic devices, Microsoft said.
FAT is used to manage data on a storage device.
“This agreement with Panasonic is the latest example of our commitment to licensing cutting-edge intellectual property to drive innovation across the industry,” said the software vendor’s IP licensing boss David Kaefer in a statement on Thursday.
Having access to the exFAT file system is very significant to Panasonic “as televisions and other consumer electronic devices are moving far beyond traditional media content,” said Kaefer, in the announcement Thursday.
He said exFAT expands the size of files that flash memory devices can handle. It is configured for handling large audiovisual files, such as a video or film, and allows for an easier interchange between desktop PCs and flash memory, such as USBs, media players, and the like.
Gaining access to the exFAT file system would empower Panasonic to deliver more seamless portability of multimedia files from a Windows PC to different devices. Panasonic also negotiated a patent license that covers use of the FAT32 long filename format in its products.
exFAT, or EXtended File Allocation Table, is an improved version of the FAT file system from Microsoft that employs less overhead than the Windows NTFS file system. It extends the maximum file size of 4GB in FAT32 to virtually unlimited. exFAT is part of part of Windows CE and Windows client and is used by a number of consumer electronics vendors. Sony, Canon, Sanyo and Tuxera already have signed IP licensing agreements for exFAT.
Panasonic also acquired from Microsoft a patent license that covers FAT32 long file name technology in its products, according to Microsoft’s February 25 press release.
Panasonic will probably include the exFAT system to manage stored files within its consumer electronics offerings. The company was one of many to roll out devices with more powerful and complex computing hardware at this year’s CES conference in Las Vegas.
The exFAT licensing program initiated in December, and Microsoft has previously endorsed similar agreements with Sanyo and Olympus.
Financial terms were kept characteristically kept under-wraps, but for such privilege, camera, camcorder and digital photo frame makers are charged a flat $300,000 license fee. Meanwhile, phone, PC and network vendors that want to use the format in their devices will have to cough up a volume-license fee.