I’ve been slow to catch these because I’m really heads-down with work this week. (That will continue next week as well, since I’ll be at Oracle’s big higher education conference for most of the week.) Al Essa has his latest analysis of how broad he believes Blackboard’s patent is. It’s a timely review for those who haven’t thought about the details in a while. Meanwhile, Barry Dahl gives us advance warning that D2L will be posting their motion responding to Blackboard’s motion for an injunction (which Blackboard apparently submitted under seal) later today. This could be very important; I think teachers, students, and administrators in the United States will want to see Blackboard’s arguments for why schools who think D2L is the best platform for education should not have the option of choosing it in the future. Barry also has some other very interesting details; it’s worth reading the post in its entirety. As a side note, I’m really pleased to see Barry doing some investigative journalism on this subject. It’s critical for the educational community that we have as many people as possible uncovering the facts and their implications. The more crowd-sourcing we can do on this, the better.
Author: Michael Feldstein
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Some Court Documents
Well, it’s later than we expected, but we did finally get a copy of the jury questionnaire as well as Blackboard’s motion for prejudgment interest. (Both of these were provided by instructional media + magic and acquired from public sources.) And there are a few interesting details.
Update: At the request of Blackboard’s legal counsel, we have removed the link to the motion for pre-judgment interest.
Later Update: A link to the redacted version of the motion has been added back. In answer to some of the questions that I’ve been getting, the reason that Blackboard requested that the document be taken down in the first place is that there was a clerical error in which Exhibit D (referenced in the post below) should have been submitted under seal since it contained D2L’s client list. (Both companies have a right to keep their client lists confidential, and the customers of both companies have the right not to publicize which platform they use.) Blackboard’s legal counsel corrected the error through official channels and asked that we take down the part of the document that shouldn’t have been released in the first place. No threats were made. After thinking about it a bit and seeking a second opinion, I came to the conclusion that it was a reasonable request and took appropriate action. With Jim’s help, I got a copy of the filing minus Exhibit D and reposted it as soon as I had the chance.
As to the question of why the instructional media + magic web site is down, it is undergoing maintenance for unrelated reasons. -
iPhone U
According to Apple rumor site AppleInsider (which has a good reputation for accuracy as far as these things go), Apple is getting ready to launch a pilot of something called iPhone U with Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Yale, and Abilene Christian University (ACU). (“One of these things is not like the other, One of these things is not quite the same….”) Sounds like a combination of iPhones/iPod Touches for all students with a beefed up and more integrated version of iTunes U. ACU is apparently first out of the gate with a full-scale program, providing iPod Touches to all students. According to AppleInsider:
“At ACU — the first university in the nation to provide these cutting-edge media devices to its incoming class — freshmen will use the iPhones or iPod Touches to receive homework alerts, answer in-class surveys and quizzes, get directions to their professors’ offices, and check their meal and account balances,” the university said in a statement.
In addition to those functions, ACU said it has already developed more than 15 other useful web applications for use on the Apple devices as part of its vision to “Connect” every student, faculty, and staff member. In a subsequent posting to its mobile learning website, the school offered a demonstration video portraying fictional, yet conceivable day-in-the-life account that highlights some of the potential benefits of its ideal mobile wireless environment.
This has the potential to be disruptive in a bunch of ways. The demonstration video is well worth watching.
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A Meeting of the Parties Today
We’re a bit behind in getting Jim’s post up. (Or, to be more accurate, I’m a bit behind in getting Jim’s post up.) My new goal is to have up tonight. Also, we haven’t yet seen the jury’s documentation of their verdict, so that will wait a bit longer as well.
In the meantime, there is a meeting today between Blackboard and D2L to see if they can reach an agreement on the remedy given the court ruling. (If not, then each side will present their argument for to the judge and the judge will decide on things like whether there will be an injunction, whether there will be a royalty and how much it would be, etc.) If the two sides come to an agreement we’ll know within a couple of days; otherwise the court will rule on March 10th.
I don’t want to read to much into this, but it’s interesting that Blackboard has chosen Peter Segall (along with Matthew Small) to represent them in the talks. Peter is very well regarded as diplomat by a lot of folks (including me) and is not generally perceived to be an edupatent warrior.
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The Market Reaction to Blackboard's Court Victory
Down half a percent on the day.
Translation: “Eh.”
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The Instructions to the Jury
As I indicated in previous posts, the jury questionnaire should be made public by the end of the day today. It will take us some time to sort through it once it’s out, so expect updates over the next couple of days. In the meantime, D2L has posted the judge’s instructions to the jury. Written in plain, accessible English, the document gives a pretty clear picture of what the jury was asked to consider and clears up some common misconceptions. (For example, the jury was asked to rule on the patent’s validity.) It’s worth the read.
Along these lines, Jim Farmer will be posting a first-hand account of the trial in advance of the detailed analysis of the outcomes (probably tomorrow).
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Blackboard Seeking an Injunction Against New US Sales
From the latest piece in The Chronicle:
Mr. Small said colleges have nothing to fear. Blackboard isn’t seeking an injunction against any of Desire2Learn’s already-installed products. It is hoping, however, to persuade the court during a hearing scheduled for March 10 to ban the company from future sales of its course-management system in the United States.
If the judge rules against an injunction on that matter, Blackboard will ask that Desire2Learn pay royalties on any new sales, in addition to the $3.1-million awarded for lost profits and back royalties. At the start of the trial, Blackboard was seeking $17-million.
The detailed jury ruling should be published by the end of the day today. (The judge gave the jury a detailed questionnaire to fill out as part of the process.) We’ll know a lot more from that.