On Tue, 09 Jul 2019 16:39:31 -0000, KY Srinivasan said:

> Let me dig up the details here.

In case this helps clarify the chain of events, the code in question
is the Samsung code mentioned here, updated to 5.2 kernel....

"We know that Microsoft has done patent troll shakedowns in the past on Linux
products related to the exfat filesystem. While we at Conservancy were
successful in getting the code that implements exfat for Linux released under
GPL (by Samsung), that code has not been upstreamed into Linux. So, Microsoft
has not included any patents they might hold on exfat into the patent
non-aggression pact."

https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2018/oct/10/microsoft-oin-exfat/
 
(Link in that para points here):
https://sfconservancy.org/news/2013/aug/16/exfat-samsung/