e-Literate

Present is Prologue

Tag: edupatents

  • Eben Moglen Weighs in on Blackboard

    Here’s a late-breaking item from the Sakai Foundation:

    In the wake of recent efforts to limit the free and open sharing of innovation for online learning, the Sakai Foundation has retained the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), an organization directed by Eben Moglen and dedicated to providing advice and legal services to protect and advance free and open source software, to evaluate the recent Blackboard patent, its impact on the educational community, and to advise on legal matters regarding the patent….Sakai has engaged the SFLC to assess and respond to the patent, but the Foundation believes that the core issue is much broader than the current technology in question. Sakai is working with the SFLC and others of like mind to develop a long term common defense effort, and encourages everyone to contribute to the SFLC to support its efforts now and in the future to aggressively challenge bad patents in the area of educational and research software.

    For those of you who don’t know, Eben Moglen is a pretty big deal. In addition to chairing the Software Freedom Law Center, he has affiliations with the Free Software Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

  • BECTA to Europe: Don't Panic About the Blackboard Patent (Yet)

    I meant to post this yesterday but the day got away from me. A reader asked me to call your attention to this announcement from the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA):

    1)Patents are valid only in the jurisdictions in which they are granted. The US patent granted to BBI will not have any direct/immediate impact on the Becta procurement process. There is currently no restriction on the supply of products within the United Kingdom which fall within the scope of the US patent.

    2)BBI has made four European patent applications. The European Patent Office (EPO) procedure is complex and lengthy. The process can take at least 5 years. The process includes an international search for “prior art”. This has revealed two documents (Lee and Cook) on the basis of which the international examination report considers that the BBI claims could not be considered novel.

    3)If the BBI applications are granted at the EPO, European Patents (UK) will be granted which will have the same effect as regular UK patents. BBI could seek to enforce its patents against potential infringers of the patents who are providing e-learning facilities in the UK. The patents will only be enforceable if they are valid. Any infringer sued by BBI would be entitled to counterclaim to invalidate the patents. The UK courts will analyse the validity of the BBI patents from first principles � the patents are afforded no ‘presumption of validity’ merely because they have survived examination in the EPO.

    In short, there is no patent in Europe yet, it will take a long time for there to be a patent in Europe, and in the event that there is a patent in Europe, the EU’s patent law is much friendlier to challenging patents than current U.S. law. BECTA concludes by saying,

    Becta considers that the Framework Agreement should proceed as planned. Suppliers should seek their own legal advice in this issue.

  • Why Desire2Learn CEO John Baker is Our Hero

    While most folks paying attention to the Blackboard patent scandal have sympathy for Desire2Learn, I’m not sure how many people realize just how altruistic the company is being by fighting the patent. From a purely financial perspective, it is clearly in D2L’s interest to settle and pay a royalty, even though doing so would harm the rest of the community. I’d like to lay out exactly why I think Desire2Learn is doing an enormous public service and what we can all do to help ensure that their good behavior pays off in the marketplace.

    (more…)

  • Still Looking for Prior Art Info on Prometheus

    If you have any info on the early days of Prometheus, including when it was built and what its features set was on or before June 1998, please post it to the Wikipedia page. This could be quite important.

  • Tim O'Reilly Picks Up the Blackboard Story

    Word keeps spreading in successively broader circles.

    Meanwhile, if you are following this issue and have not yet subscribed to Al Essa’s blog, do yourself a favor and do so right away. His series of posts dissecting the patent continue to edify.

  • Is Prometheus a Big Problem for Blackboard?

    I’ve been thinking lately about the fact that almost none of the prior art listed in the Wikipedia entry was in Blackboard’s patent filing. It’s remarkable, really, since they are legally obligated to list any potential prior art of which they are aware at the time of filing. Failing to do so would constitute fraud. This is just one of several ways in which the application appears to be very sloppy.

    I was thinking about this again when I received an email from a colleague pointing out that Prometheus is not yet listed in our prior art documentation effort. And it looks like Prometheus could present a really big legal problem for Blackboard. (more…)

  • Conversation with My Own Imaginary Spinmeister

    Me: Blackboard has an imaginary spinmeister! Oh NO!

    Spinmeister: Oh, that guy. I wouldn’t worry too much about him. He was Joe Lieberman’s imaginary spinmeister. He’s not exactly the sharpest imaginary pencil in the imaginary box, if you know what I mean.

    Me: But…their imaginary spinmeister said that this will all just blow over if they wait it out.

    Spinmeister: And that strategy worked soooo well for Lieberman. Listen, this thing is just getting started. It’s only two weeks old. And already there are grumblings among the Blackboard building blocks community that they shouldn’t be contributing code and ideas to a company that is just going to turn around and patent them. Word is getting out. You have to give your efforts time to have their effect.

    Me: So we shouldn’t care that Blackboard’s CEO isn’t answering questions about the specific nature of the patent?

    Spinmeister: Oh, you should care. You should continue to turn that against him. Keep educating people about what the patent actually says. Keep circulating the plain English translations. The more people know, the more concerned that they will be about the non-answers they get from Blackboard, and the more Chasen looks like a sleazy politician.

    Me: Well…OK…but…he has a mantra and everything!

    Spinmeister: Chill. You have a mantra too. Repeat after me: “Chilling innovation…chilling innovation…chilling innovation”…”anti-competitive…anti-competitive…anti-competitive”. The people that Blackboard is trying to spin mostly have PhD’s. They’re not stupid. And they understand how innovation happens through a collegial environment of collaborative research. If you can connect the dots for them so that they don’t have to do a lot of their own digging to understand the basic issues, they will do the right thing.

    Me: What about his point that “no institutions or organizations with any clout has taken a stand” on the issue yet? Shouldn’t we be concerned about that?

    Spinmeister: That may be the only accurate statement that my imaginary colleague made. Yes, institutions will need to step up. But he’s wrong to think that it won’t happen. The New York Times didn’t rush in to endorse Ned Lamont the first day. The fact of the matter is that institutions move in a different time stream than bloggers. The fact that no big players have jumped in two weeks into the conflict doesn’t mean that they are going to sit on the sidelines. Trust me, help is on the way. You just need to hang in there and keep getting your message out.

    Me: Well, I admit this is all very comforting. But are you sure you’re right?

    Spinmeister: Have I ever steered you wrong?

    Me: Um…actually, we’ve never spoken before. Plus, you’re a figment of my imagination.

    Spinmeister: You have a point there. But really, you’re OK. The community is on the right track and will prevail. Just take a deep breath, have a beer, and keep steady.

    Me: You’re right. We’ll hang in there. Thanks.

    Spinmeister: Hey, that’s why you pay me the big imaginary bucks.