March 29, 2008
Blackboard patents close to being revoked
Slashdot reported today that the 44 claims made in Blackboard’s patents have been rejected after reexamintion by the US Patent Office. There is still a period for comment by both Blackboard and the corporation they are suing, called Desire2Learn, which is why this decision is labeled as non-final.
The patents granted were widely criticized as being too trivial and too broad, allowing Blackboard to sue basically any competitor of learning management systems. Blackboard’s is the “Learning System” used by the University of Florida.
