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Blackboard Wins Patent Case in Battle With Desire2Learn
On February 22, 2008, a jury in the East Texas District Court awarded Blackboard Inc. $3.1 million in damages, saying that Canadian competitor, Desire2Learn Inc., had infringed its patent for a system of delivering course materials online. The damages award is substantially less than the $17 million initially sought. The jury also found that Desire2Learn had not shown clear and convincing evidence that Blackboard's patent was invalid. A hearing is scheduled for March 10, 2008, where Blackboard will be seeking an injunction to block Desire2Learn from making future sales of its product in the United States or, alternatively, to make royalty payments for future sales.
At this time, Blackboard’s general counsel, Matthew Small, has stated Blackboard will not be seeking an injunction against any existing installed Desire2Learn products or users and will not seek any infringement actions against any open-source software alternatives.
While Desire2Learn is considering appealing the verdict, Blackboard’s patent remains under fire from college and university technology officials, as well as the open-source Software Freedom Law Centre. The latter group alleges the patent is invalid for a lack of novelty and is participating in an ongoing re-examination of the patent by the USPTO.
For additional information, visit:
http://chronicle.com/free/2008/02/1828n.htm