GoPro and Microsoft ink patent licensing deal
But the details remain confidential.
GoPro and Microsoft have forged a partnership, and it's a very secretive one. The two companies have signed a patent licensing "for certain file storage and other system technologies." That is seriously all they're willing to tell us at this point, as the rest of the agreement's details remain confidential. TechCrunch notes, however, that Microsoft made the exFAT file system available for licensing, making it a likely candidate for one of the technologies included in the agreement.
exFAT is a format optimized for flash drives, allowing you to save files 32GB and up. GoPro uses exFAT for larger SD cards, but for 64GB ones and smaller, it still uses the FAT format that only save files up to 4GB in size. Microsoft has refused to give TechCrunch more info about the agreement, but in the partnership's announcement, Microsoft Technology Licensing's Nick Psyhogeos 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.
Despite all the secrecy, GoPro has already benefited greatly from the deal. The action camera-maker's stock has been dropping these recent months, but it's gone up from four to six percent after the partnership was announced.
