[A2k] Blackboard Sues for Course Management Patent Infringement

[Seth Johnson]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [IP] Blackboard Inc. files first course management
patent suit
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2006 07:55:11 -0400
From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Reply-To: dave@farber.net
To: ip@v2.listbox.com
References:
<efc70c360608021706j223048b3m86819a9236ef81c@mail.gmail.com>



Begin forwarded message:

From: Richard Wiggins <richard.wiggins@gmail.com>
Date: August 2, 2006 8:06:16 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: Blackboard Inc. files first course management patent
suit

Dave,

For IP if you wish....  Huge news that will affect universities
and   K-12 schools in a big way, so far ignored by the media:

Blackboard Inc. has sued Desire2Learn Inc. asserting that they
infringe upon a patent for course management systems.  Blackboard
was   awarded the patent in the US in January and has filed
similar patents   in many nations.

The US patent, 6,988,138, reads in incredibly broad terms.  No
doubt   the defendant and rival learning management companies
such as Angel   are checking into prior art and obviousness
defenses.

Course management systems (aka learning management systems) are
de   rigueur in higher education now, and fast spreading across
K-12   education. Students find the syllabus, read the course
reading   materials, collaborate, and take tests, all online.
They are used for   on-campus and distance education
applications. This is a huge market   and this is likely to be a
huge and ugly battle.

Blackboard's press release on the patent:

http://www.blackboard.com/company/press/release.aspx?id=887622

Amazingly, I've only seen news of the lawsuit in the Chronicle
of   Higher Education and here:

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33396

/rich

Text from the patent:

 > 1. A course-based system for providing to an educational
community of
 > users access to a plurality of online courses, comprising: a)
a
 > plurality of user computers, with each user computer being
associated
 > with a user of the system and with each user being capable of
having
 > predefined characteristics indicative of multiple
predetermined
 > roles in the system, each role providing a level of access to
a
 > plurality of data files associated with a particular course
and a
 > level of control over the data files associated with the
course with
 > the multiple predetermined user roles comprising at least two
user's
 > predetermined roles selected from the group consisting of a
student
 > role in one or more course associated with a student user, an
 > instructor role in one or more courses associated with an
instructor
 > user and an administrator role associated with an
administrator
 > user, and b) a server computer in communication with each of
the
 > user computers over a network, the server computer comprising:
means
 > for storing a plurality of data files associated with a
course,
 > means for assigning a level of access to and control of each
data
 > file based on a user of the system's predetermined role in a
course;
 > means for determining whether access to a data file associated
with
 > the course is authorized; means for allowing access to and
control
 > of the data file associated with the course if authorization
is
 > granted based on the access level of the user of the system.
 >
 > 2. The system of claim 1 wherein the instructor user is
provided
 > with an access level to enable the creation and editing of a
 > plurality of files associated with a course.
 >
 > 3. The system of claim 2 wherein the course files comprise an
 > announcement file.
 >
 > 4. The system of claim 2 wherein the course files comprise a
course
 > information file.

....

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