Blackboard Inc. files first course management patent suit

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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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