Many of you have told me that you want to help in the fight against EduPatent problem but don’t know what to do. What if, in five minutes, you could not only participate in the fight but also help bring about what may very well be the single most important development in the history of […]
edupatents
Desire2Learn Strikes Back
Desire2Learn filed their response to Blackboard’s infringement suit, and they are coming out swinging. They’re claiming that the patent is invalid because Blackboard knowingly refrained from disclosing relevant prior art (including software they had purchased such as Prometheus and previous standards work done through the IMS). As I have discussed here before, Blackboard had an […]
Being Fair to Blackboard
Al Essa has taken me to task a bit for appearing to favorably compare Microsoft and IBM to Blackboard. He notes that companies can be good corporate citizens on certain patents while predatorily asserting other patents. Let me make a couple of points in response. First, my intention wasn’t to say that Microsoft or IBM […]
Even Microsoft Disagrees with Blackboard
I recently noted that, contrary to Blackboard General Counsel Matthew Small’s assertion that no patent holder can say for certain what they will or will not do with a patent, IBM has done exactly that by providing royalty-free licenses to linux on hundreds of their patents. But hey, that’s IBM. They’re into all that crazy […]
What You Can Do About the Blackboard Patent, Part I
A number of people have commented to me that they wish that they could make a difference in the Blackboard patent fight. In the process, they usually imply that I have some power that they don’t. The thing is, I’m not a decision-maker at my university, I don’t run an Open Source project or professional […]
Jim Farmer on the Impact of the Patent Wars
Seb Schmoller has posted an insightful, moving, and rather depressing reflection piece by Jim Farmer on the impact that the patent wars will have on education in general. Here’s a sample: Education patents and the new licensing environment may further commercialize teaching and learning. The Blackboard patent is not alone, but representative of many that […]
Hiding Falsehoods and FUD Behind Legalisms
In a recent article in the Windsor Star, everyone’s favorite plain talker, Blackboard General Counsel Matthew Small, made the following statement: “No patent holder can definitely say, ‘I will not do X with my patent.’ However, I can say very confidently that we are focusing on the commercial sector.” The first half of this statement […]