Patent Fight Rattles Academic Computing
An AP newswire article, via MSNBC, reports that:
Every day, millions of students taking online college courses act in much the same way as their bricks-and-mortar counterparts. After logging on, they move from course to course and do things like submit work in virtual drop boxes and view posted grades — all from a program running on a PC.More here.
It may seem self-evident that virtual classrooms should closely resemble real ones. But a major education software company contends it wasn't always so obvious.
And now, in a move that has shaken up the e-learning community, Blackboard Inc. has been awarded a patent establishing its claims to some of the basic features of the software that powers online education.
posted by Fergie @ 8/28/2006 09:54:00 AM
1 Comments:
It is ironic that, after the merger of Blackboard and WebCT, Blackboard files for this. Basically it is an attempt to strike D2L which is the only large, commercial e-learning software and the only competition that Blackboard can monetize upon.
From the patent description it is apparent that more than just the LMS was patented; a lot of the stuff applies to CMS software in general and as such could be used on those venues as well.
With prior art abundant the patent might be even struck down during or following this legal battle.
The CEO of Blackboard apologized over dinner regarding what this patent ended up being, saying that it wasn't his intention. Even in that case, the fact that this legal action is underway makes his claim rather unfounded.
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