Yoshiro Nakamatsu
Nakamatsu claims IBM reached licensing agreements with him in the late 1970s. He also claims to have licensed his floppy disk to IBM in 1979, but that the details are "confidential". An IBM spokesman, Mac Jeffery, confirmed that the company did license some of his patents, but claimed they were not for the floppy disk, which he claimed IBM invented on its own. Another IBM spokesman, Brian Doyle, said they licensed 14 patents from Nakamatsu, but also claimed that they do not have anything to do with the floppy disk.
Henn Tan
Henn Tan, is the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Trek 2000 International, the company which invented the ThumbDrive, a USB flash drive, which phased out the floppy disk and revolutionised the portable media storage industry. Tan has served as a board of director at Ren Ci Hospital Limited since November 2010. He is a holder and inventor of numerous patents worldwide.