A while ago, I noted D2L’s claim that Blackboard General Counsel Matt Small (whose title either is going to be changed or has already been changed to “Chief Business Officer”) was calling D2L customers and encouraging them to switch over. I requested that readers contact me with any information that they have. I got a […]
Desire2Learn
I Want More
The EDUCAUSE webinar on edupatents today was very good. (The archived event is available.) James Hilton, University of Virginia’s CIO, did a great job of laying out the fundamental conflict between the academic endeavor and the United States’ obsession with ideas as property–an idea that has infused academia through technology transfer departments among many other […]
Blackboard's Response to the USPTO Office Action
In case you haven’t seen it yet, Blackboard has responded to the non-final invalidation of their patent by the USPTO. I’ve only had time to scan it quickly, but here are my preliminary observations. First, Blackboard has added a bunch of new dependent claims, bringing the total up to 57. (There’s a Steve Martin joke […]
What I Want from the EDUCAUSE Seminar on Edupatents
Seb has a good post up raising some questions for the free EDUCAUSE webinar on edupatents tomorrow at 1 PM Eastern time. I’ll add a few of my own (which in some ways are just extensions of Seb’s): What are the various edupatents being litigated in the United States today and what is the potential […]
Blackboard v. Desire2Learn: The First Final Judgment
This is a guest post by Jim Farmer. Delayed several days by a database failure at the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Friday, May 2nd, the Final Judgment and associated orders for Blackboard v. Desire2Learn are now publicly available. This text is based upon publicly available records. Because much of the record […]
Is Blackboard's Lawyer Calling D2L's Customers?
Here’s an interesting bit from D2L’s patent blog: Clients have been calling us to let us know that Matthew Small, General Counsel of Blackboard, has been calling them. From what we understand, his purpose appears to be twofold: (1) to encourage clients to switch to Blackboard ; and (2) to create FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) […]
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 […]