Blackboard v. Desire2Learn: The First Final Judgment

Hace mucho que no traemos nada sobre el caso Blackboard. Para remediarlo , del excelente blog e-literate el post titulado (es largo, interesante) :
Blackboard v. Desire2Learn: The First Final Judgment
Published by Jim Farmer May 14th, 2008 in Higher Education and Tools, Toys, and Technology (Oh my!). Tags: Blackboard Inc., Desire2Learn, edupatents.

This is a guest post by Jim Farmer.

Delayed several days by a database failure at the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Friday, May 2nd, the Final Judgment and associated orders for Blackboard v. Desire2Learn are now publicly available.

This text is based upon publicly available records. Because much of the record is “sealed” and not available to the public, and the transcript is available only upon payment to the court reporter, the complete record, as available to counsel, may provide a different perspective.

Permanent Injunction

The permanent injunction was issued March 11 and automatically stayed 60 days until May 12 (May 11 was Sunday). On May 7th Desire2Learn made a sealed “Emergency Motion for Limited Extension of Stay of Permanent Injunction.” Judge Clark did stay the permanent injunction an additional 30 days until June 11th. However the judge ordered Desire2Learn “…notify its present clients and all persons and entities with whom Desire2Learn is offering to provide online education products, methods, or services of the injunction and that court does not intend to issue any additional extensions.” The Judge also required Desire2Learn to pay Blackboard $194,769 as “appropriate reasonable royalty to be paid for the ongoing infringement and anticipated post judgment interest during the pendency of any appeal.”(leer más…)

Fuente: [e-literate]

Desire2Learn y Blackboard. Patente rejected

Aquí os traemos nuevas informaciones sobre el caso blackboard de las patentes del blog de Desire2Learn.

Reexam update – patent rejected

Mar 28, 2008 9:49 AM

On March 25, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office issued its Non-Final Action on the re-examination of the Blackboard Patent. We are studying the document, found here, but in short, the PTO has rejected all 44 of Blackboard’s claims. We caution that this is a NON-final action; both Blackboard and Desire2Learn will have an opportunity to comment before a final action will issue, and after that, the decision will be subject to appeals.

However, we’re still pleased.

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Official Workaround Announcement

Mar 27, 2008 12:01 PM

John Baker, President & CEO of Desire2Learn, is sending the following letter to all clients and prospects:

Good news!

I am writing to advise you of the latest updates regarding the Blackboard v. Desire2Learn litigation.

We’re pleased to announce that Learning Environment 8.3 is in the process of being released for general availability, and is our official design-around to the asserted claims of the Blackboard patent. Previously, Learning Environment 8.3 was our design-around candidate. Our Learning Environment 8.3 underwent external third-party review after we devoted significant resources to ensuring that 8.3 was outside the scope of the method claims of the patent. We are confident that this version does not infringe the asserted claims.

This General Availability release of Learning Environment 8.3 serves another important purpose: as a result of our ongoing collaboration with our clients, it provides rich feature and functionality enhancements, and provides users with the best teaching and learning environment in the industry. For further information about Learning Environment 8.3, please see our Learning Environment website, www.Desire2Learn.com/learningenvironment.

If you would like additional information on the specifics of the court proceedings you can obtain all substantive, publicly available information at our patent information site www.Desire2Learn.com/patentinfo. As always, we continue to be as transparent as possible.

On a related note we have received an update from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) about the reexamination of Blackboard’s patent that we filed in 2006. The PTO has now merged the two reexamination petitions, the one that we filed, as well as the one that the Software Freedom Law Center filed. You may recall, in its initial response to our request for reexamination, the PTO found that 13 of 14 pieces of prior art that we supplied led to «substantial questions of patentability».

I know that the patent litigation has been on the minds of each of our clients, as well as many members in the educational community. I would like to personally thank you for your continued support through this effort. With the transition to Learning Environment 8.3, I am sure that all Desire2Learn clients are going to be well served by the leading eLearning platform in the market. (leer más…)

Fuente: [Desire2Learn blog]

Caso Blackboard y patentes: Blackboard Lies and Liars

Hoy traemos este post sobre el caso Blackboard y las patentes de Desire2Blog. su autor es
Barry Dahl View my complete profile

Blackboard Lies and Liars

Blackboard is working hard on becoming the most hated corporation in the education market. Anyone paying attention will easily come to the conclusion that these people do not play fair; are not collegial in any way , shape, or form; and fully deserve to be shunned by the educational industry that they seek to monopolize.

More dirt about Blackboard comes from the information released by D2L in their response to BB’s Motion for Permanent Injunction. See pages 10-11 of 18.

«In the past three years, Bb has made two requests to the government of the United States for assistance in helping Bb avoid competing in a free and open market. Bb successfully advocated to the United States Department of Justice that Bb’s absorption of the second-largest CMS provider in the market would not adversely affect competition, in large part because its competitor, D2L, had “continuing momentum” that would prevent Bb from having undue market power after the merger. However, almost immediately upon completing its merger, Bb turned to this Court and now asks the Court to enter a permanent injunction to eliminate the very competition that Bb told the Department of Justice justified the merger.(leer más…)

Fuente:[Desire23blog]

Caso Blackboard y las patentes

Hace mucho que no hablamos del caso Blackboard y de las patentes…en fin, traemos nuevos posts…en este caso de nuestros más querido gurús Stephen Downes y de e-literate, o lo que es lo mismo Michael Feldstein y finalmente de Alfred H. Essa. La cosa va por el camino…como decía la canción por el camino verde que va …a la ermita:

1) February 23, 2008 Jury Supports Blackboard Patent
This is a special issue of OLDaily to wrap up coverage of the Blackboard patent trial jury verdict. The East Texas jury managed to wra up deliberations in an afternoon and get away for the weekend with a judgement of $3.1 million in favour of Blackboard. The reaction across the web was generally one of dismay, though there were some mitigating factors: first, the settlement was much less than Blackboard as wasking, second, the verdict did not include an injunction against sales of Desire2Learn software, and third, the patent is still under review by the U.S. patent office.

Still, Michael Feldstein probably summed up the views of most observers: «I’m speechless.» Feldstein provides ongoing coverage of the reaction, including a post linking to Desire2Learn’s letter to their customers, coverage of the Campus Technology article on the case, and a summary of the Waterloo Record article.

2) Blackboard Vs Desire2Learn Patent Suit – Update In the Blackboard patent case, «the jury handed down its verdict that the patent is valid and that Blackboard should be awarded damages of approximately $3 million.» John Baker, Desire2Learn, February 22, 2008.

3) D2L’s Letter to their Customers

From their patent blog:

Dear Client,

I am writing to update you on the current status of the Blackboard v. Desire2Learn Patent Infringement lawsuit. Earlier today the jury handed down its verdict that the patent is valid and that Blackboard should be awarded damages of approximately $3 million.

4) Blackboard Won

This just in:

A Texas jury has found Kitchener software company Desire2Learn Inc. guilty of infringing on an American competitor’s patent.

The verdict, announced this afternoon, allows Blackboard Inc. to demand a ban on sales of Desire2Learn’s products in the United States.

5) Blackboard’s Use and Abuse of Standards Bodies enThe NOSE: Information Technology in Higher Educationde Alfred H. Essa , en último lugar….

One of the interesting twists in the Blackboard Inc v Desire2Learn Patent Case is the potential abuse by Blackboard of the standards process. Michael Feldstein (eLiterate blog) posed the issue last year. Let’s revive it because it’s one of the subtexts in the current trial. Furthermore, it raises a disturbing challenge to the integrity of the standards process.

First, let’s state the facts. Before Blackboard filed the ‘138 patent a number of prominent Blackboard people, including some of the purported patent «inventors» worked as consultants to the IMS standards body during the late 1990s. The list includes prominent people such as Michael Chasen and Mathew Pittinsky, both Blackboard co-founders. Some of them were paid consultants to IMS.

On April 29, 1998 IMS published a document entitled «EDUCOM/NLII Instructional Management Systems Specifications Document Version 0.5». Bob Alcorn, Mike Petit, and Udo Schuermann from Blackboard are listed as contributors to the specification document. (Alcorn is listed as one of the «inventors» of the ‘138 patent).

Por supuesto hay otros mundos…pero están en Obama (perdón, pero están en Este).

Fuente: [ Stephen Downes y Micael Feldstein]

Caso Blackboard. patentes

Esto se ha convertido ya en un intríngulis de leguleyos…pero ahí va la noticia… que el juez ya ha tratado 35 de las 44 demandas….

Markman Decision Announced Aug 4, 2007 3:26 PM

Late Friday, August 3, we received the Memorandum Opinion Construing Claim Terms of the United States Patent No. 6,988,138 from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (Magistrate Judge Hines). In addition, we received an Order on Agreed Terms. Both of these documents, in full, can be found on our files page. The Memorandum Opinion is subject to a procedural appeal.

The Memorandum Opinion is the «Markman» decision, and results from the briefs previously filed, as well as the hearing in Texas on July 18 before Judge Hines.

The importance of any Markman decision is twofold. First, it provides the definitions for terms that are in dispute between the parties. The definitions provided by the Court must be used at trial – the parties typcially cannot re-litigate the definitions before trial. Second, it reviews the claims of the patent in light of certain challenges from the opposing party, and the result of that review may be fatal to certain patent claims.

In our case, and subject, of course, to a procedural appeal, the Markman decision is important for both purposes. The more significant, immediate result is that the Court found the «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,» a «means-plus-function» term, to be indefinite. See pages 16-17 of the Memorandum Opinion. Because that phrase is indefinite, all of Claim 1 is rendered invalid because of indefiniteness. Further, all dependent claims that rely on Claim 1 (in our case, Claims 2 through 35) are similarly invalid.

In addition, the Court construed the term «With each user being capable of having predefined characteristics indicative of multiple predetermined roles in the system» to mean «discrete roles and their associated characteristics to which a user can be multiply assigned are set in advance within the system,» a definition more in line with our position than Blackboard’s. See pages 6-11 of the Memorandum Opinion.

The Markman decision is an important one, and one that we are still studying.

But it’s fair to say that, at this stage, we’re pleased.(leer más…)

Fuente: [desire2learn]

tags: e-learning, aprendizaje, web2.0, social software, web 2.0, eLearning, Desire2Learn, caso Blackboard, Blackboard

Realize the Potential. Fusion. Desire2Learn users conference. July8-12, 2007 Minnesota

Dear Desire2Learn Users,

I would like to warmly invite you to attend our fourth annual users’ conference, FUSION 2007, to be held July 8th to 11th in the beautiful resort city of Duluth, Minnesota. I also encourage you to participate in our post conference training workshops to be held at Lake Superior College July 11th and 12th. This year’s conference is co-hosted by Lake Superior College and University of Wisconsin-Superior … it is a must attend event for all Desire2Learn users.

The Desire2Learn Users Conference enables us to learn about your successes, your challenges, your opinions, and your business requirements, as well as share Desire2Learn developments with you. The conference has become a significant and much anticipated event. Last year’s conference had wonderful reviews. Attendees commented on the pleasure of meeting and networking with their peers as well as Desire2Learn staff.

All FUSION 2007 events will focus on this year’s theme, Realize the Potential. The conference will offer a variety of client-delivered sessions organized under four redesigned tracks geared to all levels of understanding. Keynote speakers will inspire and stimulate you with their thought-provoking presentations. Sessions will engage you with best practices and techniques, and a number of social events will provide you with opportunities to network, share, and have fun! A new addition, post conference workshops, will include hands-on training sessions.

Desire2Learn, along with the FUSION Planning Committee, is dedicated to ensuring that your needs are reflected in all conference events. Join us in Duluth and together we will realize the potential of your organization, your learners, and Desire2Learn solutions. I hope you are able to join us to collaborate and learn at FUSION 2007.

Kindest Regards,

John Baker
President & CEO
Desire2Learn Inc.

(leer más…)

Fuente: [desire2learn]

tags: e-learning, aprendizaje, web2.0, social software, Desire2Learn users conferenceweb 2.0, Desire2Learn

[link] Continuamos para bingo con Blackboard: Keep Your Own Counsel on the Blackboard Controversy

By Michael Feldstein, SUNY Learning Network (NY)

As you may know, Blackboard Inc. was recently granted a patent on aspects of Learning Management Systems and filed an infringement lawsuit against competitor Desire2Learn.
There are a lot of claims and counter-claims flying back and forth about what these developments may or may not mean for higher education and online learning. (Full disclosure: I am opposed to Blackboard’s litigation.) However, all sides agree that universities will benefit from educating themselves about the fundamentals of the issue. To that end, this article provides a series of questions that you can take to your college’s legal counsel in order to better understand how patents on educational software in general and Blackboard’s patent in particular may affect your institution.(leer más…)

Fuente: [campus-technology ]

tags: e-learning, aprendizaje, web2.0, Blackboard, web 2.0, patent