Microsoft and GoPro have signed a cross-licensing patent agreement. Microsoft did not disclose the exact term of the deal, but it said that the new collaborative patent licensing agreement is for certain file storage and other system technologies. Since the company launched its IP licensing program in December 2003, it has entered into more than 1,200 licensing agreements with companies like Samsung, ZTE, LG, HTC, Acer, Dell and Motorola Solutions.
TechCrunch reports that Microsoft made the exFAT file system available for licensing, so there are chances that this is covered under the agreement. exFAT allows for saving larger files on storage media from 32GB to 256TB. Latest GoPro models accept up to 128GB cards. For larger cards, GoPro already uses the exFAT format, but for smaller ones under 64GB, it still uses the old FAT format, which then splits files in 4GB segments since that’s the maximum file size for FAT32.
Nick Psyhogeos, president of Microsoft Technology Licensing, said:
This agreement with GoPro shows the incredible breadth of technology sharing enabled through patent transactions. Microsoft’s licensing of personal wearable technologies is seeing strong demand as we partner with companies from all industries to optimize solutions for their customers around the globe.