intellectual-property licensing
How is NTFS licensed?
<p>What are the restrictions on NTFS and in what ways can I use NTFS?</p>

<p>Can I boot from NTFS without worrying about Microsoft suing me?</p>

<p>Is it based on if I have a Windows license?  I asked a similar question on <a href="https://superuser.com/questions/990568/how-is-ntfs-licensed">superuser</a> and <a href="https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/300618/how-is-ntfs-licensed">programmers</a>.</p>

<p>Unlike with its ExFAT filesystem and VFAT filesystem extensions, Microsoft has chosen not to issue any patents regarding NTFS, so there's no need to obtain a licence from Microsoft to use it.  The particular &quot;invention&quot; of a boot sector is much older than NTFS, and even Microsoft itself, and so wouldn't have been patentable by them in any case.</p>
