Appellate Court Overturns Blackboard Patent; Blackboard To Press On

Appellate Court Overturns Blackboard Patent; Blackboard To Press On

Summary:

There has been a patent battle since 2006 between Blackboard and Desire2Learn with regard to a patent placed by the Blackboard company many years ago. Blackboard claims patent infingement against Desire2Learn based upon the patent referred to as the "Alcorn Patent". This patent focused on ,"technology used for Internet-based education support systems and methods". Blackboard won the battle at first and was awarded $3.1 million for the patent infringement. Desire2Learn did not stop there and asked the United States Patent and Trademark Office to reexamine certain parts of the Alcorn patent.

According to a ruling, handed down by the United States Court of Appeals, the judge ruled in favor of Desire2Learn because of the definition of "user" stated by Blackboard. The Blackboard company is extremely disappointed by the ruling and will appeal the decision.

Thoughts:

I am deeply discouraged to think that Blackboard should be fighting for proprietary rights to its LMS. I would hope none of this would be proprietary because it is for educational purposes. We want all people to be educated and this is a way to make it accessible to anyone with an Internet connection and a computer. If Blackboard does win, they could be an extremely dominant source for the e-learning community.

Now you are probably thinking at this moment, "How is it that Moodle and other open source programs are not involved." Well Blackboard made a deal with any company who is considered to be "open source" and would not include them in the lawsuit.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2009/07/27/appellate-court-overturn...