A number of folks have contacted me asking for up-to-the-minute updates on the trial. To begin with, I am tagging all relevant articles so that they appear in the EduPatents feed. I probably won’t blog about most of these directly unless I feel I have something substantially new to say about them, so my advice to those itching for news is to watch the feed. I will blog any new (non-confidential) information that I hear directly from people at the trial, and there is at least a small chance that I’ll have a guest blogger who is present in East Texas write a post or two on what he is seeing.
Tag: Blackboard-Inc.
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Blackboard Advertises an 'Open Source LMS'
Update: I just ran another Google search today (two days after the original post) and Blackboard’s ad no longer shows up. It looks like they may have pulled it. If so, good for them.
A friend of mine sent me this ad, which appeared in his GMail account. Blackboard could have its ad show up with the key search terms “open source” and “LMS” (which I wouldn’t object to in and of itself) without having to have the words “Open Source LMS” headline its ad with a hyperlink (thus giving the strong false impression that Blackboard’s offering is open source). To prove this point, check out the ads that appear when I search on those terms in Google:
Note that all of these ads are for proprietary LMSs, but only Blackboard chooses to actually use the phrase “Open Source LMS” in the ad text itself.
Blackboard needs to take this ad down. On the eve of their self-destructive court case with D2L, the last thing they need is another self-inflicted PR wound from an ad that misleads people who are searching for an open source product.
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Blackboard Bought Xythos
The Chronicle just confirmed it. For those who don’t know, Blackboard Content System is based on the Xythos Content Server product. So now Bb owns a content management engine and can integrate it pervasively with the rest of its product line. (To date, the integration between Bb Content System and their LMS is relatively weak.) This fits well with the trend we’re seeing elsewhere, e.g., Moodle and Sakai both building JSR-170 repositories underneath all of their various LMS tools, ANGEL and D2L both selling some kind of content management add-ons, etc. Clearly, the integration of content management into core teaching tools and processes is going to be a big story in 2008.
Damn. I shoulda included that in my eLearn predictions.
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Blackboard v Desire2Learn Trial Is Coming Up
Since our last posting, we received word that the judge has decided not to rule on any summary judgment motions – he’s letting all issues go to trial. As a result, Desire2Learn’s legal folks – inside and outside counsel – have been working overtime preparing for trial.
We’re going to trial on February 11, in Lufkin, Texas. We anticipate that the trial will last approximately two weeks – both sides have been restricted to 18 hours each to present their cases. We continue to be grateful for the support of others in the industry. Most of the issues will be tried before a jury; inequitable conduct is tried before the judge. At this point, we’re (obviously) careful about divulging our trial strategy – we’re sorry we can’t share more.
As much as ever, we’re confident of our defenses, including the defense of the patent’s invalidity and inequitable conduct, and the fact that we do not infringe.
Looking for a warm place to spend a couple of weeks in February? Consider an early-spring trip to Lufkin!
If anybody is planning to go to the trial, please let me know.
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Blackboard Is Losing Customers, but What Does It Mean?
After Blackboard’s recent earnings announcement and conference call, Jim Farmer and I had a chat about what we learned. One thing that struck us both was that Blackboard’s total number of LMS license customers is declining. Jim, being handy with Excel, put this chart together:
There is a clear long-term trend toward reduced number of total LMS licenses. Furthermore, Blackboard reported a slight decline (by three licenses, compared with a gain of 45 licenses in the same quarter of the previous year) of Enterprise licenses from last quarter to this quarter. At the same time, they are still hitting their revenue and profit numbers, and they have not guided analyst expectations lower. So what’s really going on here?
As is often the case when analyzing the data from publicly traded companies, the answers aren’t entirely clear. I have some thoughts, though, which I’m happy to share. Before I do, I want to thank Blackboard Vice President, Investor Relations & Global Treasury Michael Stanton, who was as helpful and forthcoming as he is legally allowed to be under SEC regulations in answering follow-up questions that I sent to him on the topic.
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An Open Casket After All
Update: The intrepid Jim Farmer has also posted a copy of the D2L entry in the immagic eLibrary.
As it turns out, one of your fellow e-Literate readers saved the D2L post and pasted it into the comments section of my last post.
I love you guys.
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Burying the Bodies
Following my last post regarding the nasty details of Blackboard’s behavior that came out during the discovery phase of the trial, we now see the following message up on the D2L blog:
[Our Litigation Update post, originally posted here on October 24, has been temporarily removed, as late today we received a letter from Blackboard’s lawyers.
Right now, our lawyers are quite busy preparing responses to various court filings by Blackboard – and those responses must be filed with the court soon. It’s more important for our lawyers to address the substantive issues, and not be sidetracked by Blackboard’s attempted distractions. So . . . it’s down, but we promise it’ll be back, in one form or another.
We continue our pledge to be as transparent as possible. And now perhaps our readers can begin to appreciate how difficult that can be.]
I don’t suppose anybody out there has a cached copy of the post….