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. 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

Caso Blackboard (II): Blackboard Announces Patent Pledge in Support of Open Source Software and Home-Grown Course Management Systems

Seguimos con el caso Blackboard, lo que más me ha gustado es que Blackboard haya creado un icono para el caso Blackboard, aunque ellos lo llaman about Blackboard Patent…. Lo considerará algo importante? 😉

Blackboard Announces Patent Pledge in Support of Open Source Software and Home-Grown Course Management Systems

Washington, DC, February 1, 2007 – Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB), a leading provider of enterprise technology to the education community, announced today a “Patent Pledge” in support of learning institutions worldwide that use or develop open source and home-grown course management software as well as the commercial entities supporting them.

In summary, the Blackboard Patent Pledge is a promise by the company to never assert its issued or pending course management system software patents against open source software or home-grown course management systems. The Blackboard Pledge is legally binding, irrevocable and worldwide in scope.

“As a member of the e-Learning community, we are committed to the open exchange of ideas, collaboration and innovation,” said Michael Chasen, president and chief executive officer of Blackboard. “This pledge is part of that commitment and our continued efforts to work collaboratively with the e-Learning community to foster greater openness and interoperability.

(leer más…)

Fuente: [Blackboard]

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

Caso Pizarra Blackboard: Patent Office Orders Re-Examination of Blackboard Patent

Hace mucho que no que no se producían noticias del Caso Pizarra Blackboard.

NEW YORK, January 25, 2007 — In response to a formal request filed by the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today ordered re-examination of the e-learning patent owned by Blackboard Inc.

SFLC, provider of pro-bono legal services to protect and advance Free and Open Source Software, had filed the request in November on behalf of Sakai, Moodle, and ATutor, three open source educational software projects. The Patent Office found that prior art cited in SFLC’s request raises «a substantial new question of patentability» regarding all 44 claims of Blackboard’s patent.

The patent in question, «Internet-based education support system and methods» (U.S. 6988138), grants Blackboard a monopoly on most educational software that differentiates between the roles of teacher and student until the year 2022. In July, Blackboard filed a lawsuit against Desire2Learn, a competing educational software maker, alleging infringement of its e-learning patent.(leer más…)

Fuente: [groklaw]

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

E-learning y derecho: Blackboard patent.

Hace mucho que no hablábamos de la patente de Blackboard (en este enlace podéis ver algunos de mis posts dedicados).

Entre ayer y hoy muchos medios hablan del tema. Claro que aquí esto nos queda muy lejos, en España estamos en otra dimensión. Valga como ejemplo el post titulado «¿Qué es la enseñanza virtual?» de JJ Merelo, que también estuvo en eventoblog y unicienblog : lo que dejó más claro en unicienblog es que los blogs no sirven para la investigación, y lo recuerdo porque lo repitió varias veces en la mesa;-).

Aquí todavía estamos en la primera etapa de casi todo: la que llamaremos la etapa «evangelizadora» (casi 50 años de atraso, son mucho peso), ya sabemos que España ha sido durante larga parte de su historia la gran evangelizadora.

Pero a lo que iba, como muy bien dice Merelo en el post:»En fin, nosotros seguiremos insistiendo. Pero me parece que habrá que empezar por evangelizar, y en eso queda un camino por recorrer.»

Aquí tenéis unos enlaces a distintos medios que reseñan

1) Group challenges e–learning patent
CNET News.com – San Francisco,CA,USA

2) Center Seeks To Overturn e–Learning Patent
InformationWeek – Manhasset,NY,USA

3) Formal Challenge Launched To Blackboard’s E–Learning Patent
Techdirt – USA

4) Open source lawyers take on e–learning patent
IT Week – London,UK

5) Open source lawyers take on e–learning patent
iT News – Australia

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

[not] Drop Patent, Educause Urges Blackboard

The leaders of higher education’s main technology association have written a powerfully worded letter urging Blackboard to relinquish the rights it gained under a controversial patent of online learning technologies in the public domain and to drop a patent infringement lawsuit it filed in August against a Canadian competitor, Desire2Learn.

“We believe this action would be in the best business interests of Blackboard and in the best interests of higher education,” Brian L. Hawkins, the president of Educause, and the group’s Board of Directors said in a letter to Blackboard this month. “We do not make this request lightly or underestimate the courage it will take to implement. However, we believe it is the right action for your corporation and our community.”(leer más…)

Fuente: [insidehighered]

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

[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