more on Blackboard Inc. files first course management patent suit

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Nathan Dintenfass <ndintenfass () nicenet org>
Date: August 3, 2006 5:00:18 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Blackboard Inc. files first course management  
patent suit

Dave:

As a side project, I run a small non-profit called Nicenet that has  
provided a free web-based classroom environment to teachers and  
students since 1996 (the year before Blackboard was founded).  The  
prior art on most claims in this patent seems easy to find, but  
perhaps even more important the "non-obvious" nature of the claims  
seems like a joke.  The patent literally includes things like making  
an assignment, having someone turn it in, looking at it, then  
assigning a grade.  As if putting that on the Web was ever non-obvious.

Nicenet is a tiny organization with no resources to take on this  
fight by itself, but in case any of your readers are involved in  
challenging this patent and want more potential prior-art and/or  
input from an organization that has been doing online classroom  
environments for over a decade, they can contact me -- we'd be happy  
to help however we can.

Nathan Dintenfass
Co-Director, Nicenet
ndintenfass () nicenet org




David Farber wrote:
> 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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