This just in from Desire2Learn’s patent blog: Blackboard issued two press releases regarding its acquisition of ANGEL Learning (ANGEL) – one on May 6, announcing the intention to acquire, and one on May 11, stating that the acquisition was complete. Indeed, Matthew Small, Blackboard’s chief business officer (and general counsel) stated “I don’t think that there’s any […]
Matthew-Small
Blackboard and Desire2Learn Fight Over Venue for Next Round
*Sigh.* At some point I hope the world–and the Blackboard case–will slow down enough so that I’ll actually have time to blog about something else. Here’s the latest from D2L’s patent blog: April, 2008 – Matthew Small, Blackboard’s Chief Legal Officer: “Certainly we believe the reexamination process is a healthy process. It serves to generally […]
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) […]
Blackboard Inc. v. Desire2Learn Inc.: “Grey” Monday March 10, 2008
Yesterday, Desire2Learn submitted its response to Blackboard’s request for injunction (which was apparently submitted under seal) and accompanying letters from various school and university officials arguing that preventing D2L from selling their product in the United States would be against the public interest. Barry Dahl has done a terrific job of summing up the case […]
On Edupatents, Corporate Branding, and Putting Words in People's Mouths
There’s a write-up of the edupatent flap in eSchool News. It provides a reasonably good summary of the basic history, as far as these types of stories tend to go, and also gives a high-level account of the current state of the legal battle. (Short version: It’s dragging on.) All in all, it’s a useful […]
Blackboard Patent Celebrity Death Match
I note with satisfaction that Eben Moglen’s keynote speech [MP3] and debate with Matthew Small [MP3] have already been reported and commented on in a number of places. (See, for example, Seb’s analysis.) This pleases me for two reasons. First, it means we have developed a healthy community response mechanism to make sure we are […]
Conversations with Desire2Learn and Blackboard
While at EDUCAUSE, I had opportunities to sit down with both Blackboard’s General Counsel Matthew Small and the Desire2Learn executive team. In the spirit of diplomacy, everything in this post has been reviewed by both sides, and there are aspects of our conversations that will remain private. In my conversation with Matt Small, we spent […]