When was the first USB flash drive patented?
USB flash drives were invented by Amir Ban, Dov Moran and Oron Ogdan, of the Israeli company M-Systems, who filed US patent 6148354 in April 1999. There is a rival claim. Released later the same year, IBM Patent Disclosure RPS8-1999-0201 from September 13, 1999 by Shimon Shmueli accurately describes the USB flash drive. IBM partnered with M-Systems to bring the product to market.
More Info:
en.wikipedia.org
What are your thoughts on this subject?
7 Comments
Roland Martin Sr.
1999 the patent was applied for, the patent was granted in 2000.
Donna R. O'Brien Moran
Got it correct.
Mark Ann Dubaz
We got our first home computer in 1992 and I knew we didn’t have flash drives so I just took a guess and got it.
mikemerr
I remember when the USB drives were a big hit at CES in Las Vegas, and the first drives were not that big and were going to be fairly expensive. Now at CES 8gb drives are given away often by the Exhibitors
jaime alzate
I don´t agree with the answer, since it was invented in 1999, but was patented in 2002.
Gery Tillmanns
The original had a cable.
mkrash
Alright I knew the USB were first on market in 2002 so I went with 1999 and got lucky