You may have heard that Khan Academy has filed for several patents. Audrey Watters has written a really strong piece providing the details of the filings in the context of the history of ed tech patents and showing why some academics feel that the patent system clashes with the values upon which academia was built. In the process, she excavates some of my personal history in the Blackboard patent war. While I am sympathetic to arguments against ed tech or software patents on principle, my own personal reasons for getting involved with that fight were more utilitarian. I believed then, as I do now, that patents threaten to kill innovation in educational technology due to the specific characteristics of the market. The outcome of Blackboard v. Desire2Learn did not end that threat, although it did temporarily reduce it. The conversation being provoked by Khan Academy’s filings offers a new opportunity to come up with a more permanent solution. (more…)
Tag: ATutor
-
What the Sakai Announcement Means
Barry Dahl read the Sakai Foundation’s recent announcement about the Blackboard patent pretty closely and is concerned that it sounds like they think the fight is over. I completely understand why he interpreted it that way, but I read it a little differently. If you look closely at the specifics of the legal situation, the Foundation’s position begins to make a lot more sense.
-
What the Sakai/Moodle/ATutor Re-Examination Request Really Means
By now you’ve probably seen that the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has filed a request to re-examine Blackboard’s patent with the USPTO on behalf of Sakai, Moodle, and ATutor. You may have also seen that D2L has filed a different kind of re-examination request with the USPTO. (SFLC’s request is what’s known as ex parte, while D2L’s is inter partes.) I’ll have more to say about the legal maneuvers in tomorrow’s post. For now, I’d like to address a larger context.
The Sakai/Moodle/ATutor request is generally being characterized as the “Open Source” response to Blackboard’s patent. This is unfortunate, as is the fact that SFLC is perceived to be leading the charge. Because to my mind, the most important message from this filing to Blackboard and the market has nothing to do with Open Source.