Blackboard’s General Counsel Matthew Small has said that their patent and lawsuit is “not about hindering innovation.” It’s important that we not allow this claim to go unchallenged. I’d like to start gathering concrete examples of initiatives that are beneficial to the educational community and could be directly harmed by Blackboard’s actions. I’ll start. The first example I can think of is the developing IMS Common Cartridge standard.
Tag: Blackboard-Inc.
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Desire2Learn Posts Supplemental Materials on Blackboard Patent and Lawsuit
A reader tipped me off that Desire2Learn now has its own blog up about the Blackboard lawsuit, and that the page contains supplemental legal documents that have not been made public before now. There’s a lot here to be read and analyzed. I haven’t had a chance to review them myself thoroughly yet because I didn’t want to wait on getting the info out to the rest of the community. At first blush, though, a few interesting things jump out: (more…)
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First Mainstream Press Article about the Blackboard Patent
The Kitchener Record, Desire2Learn’s hometown newspaper, is running a story on the patent infringement suit. With luck, more mainstream media outlets will begin reporting on it soon.
I’d like to address one comment in the article by Blackboard’s General Counsel, Matthew Small. He said,
This is not about reducing competition, it’s not about hindering innovation, and it is something we think is in line with our duty to our clients to protect their investment in us as well as to protect the investment we’ve made in our technology.
There are a number of ways in which this statement is off-base. (more…)
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Wikipedia Page Call for Reviewers
With some encouragement from Seb Schmoller and David Jennings, I searched for and found a way to ask Wikipedia editors at-large to peer review our History of Virtual Learning Environments page for tone and for compliance with their style guide. (You’ll see an icon and text box to this effect prominently displayed at the top of the wiki page.) We want our contributions to be factual, fair, and consistent with the spirit of the Wikipedia project.
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The Blackboard Patent Claims in Plain English
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Blackboard, Copyright, and Patents
Al Essa has a great post up that covers the basic differences between a copyright and a patent as well as laying the groundwork for a dissection of Blackboard’s claims (presumably forthcoming). In the meantime, I am in the process of translating the 44 claims in their patent into plain English. When you see what they are actually claiming to have invented, you will be well and truly gobsmacked. I’ll post it as soon as some colleagues who are smarter than I am have proofread it for me.
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Is Blackboard Feeling the Heat Already?
Blackboard has an (apparently) new area on their web site devoted to patent issues, which includes a somewhat defensive FAQ:
Why has Blackboard developed a patent portfolio?
We have invested heavily in the research and development of our products (well over $100m). Few other companies have committed such resources to learning technologies designed specifically for educators. Patents help ensure that companies that do not make comparable investments cannot simply rely on copying to develop their products. While we believe that there is a large body of freely available ideas and technology within the industry, we seek to protect our most important technological advances with patents. Globally, we have over 30 patents and patents pending.I suspect they’ve received a few calls and emails on the issue.
tags: blackboard patent