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Open source Software Group Seeks to Overturn Patent
The Software Freedom Law Center, a provider of pro-bono legal services in support of open-source software, has filed a request with the U.S. Patent Office to re-examine a patent issued to Blackboard Inc., an educational software company. The patent, No. 6,988,138, filed in 1999 and issued on January 17, 2006, relates to software that permits educational institutions to provide students with courses online. The claims include the ability to grant a single user different access rights to online resources (such as grades, files or quizzes) depending on the user’s role in a particular course (for example, as student, teacher or administrator). The re-examination request asserts that the patent’s claims are either obvious or anticipated by the prior art.
Ric The Software Freedom Law Center, a provider of pro-bono legal services in support of open-source software, has filed a request with the U.S. Patent Office to re-examine a patent issued to Blackboard Inc., an educational software company. The patent, No. 6,988,138, filed in 1999 and issued on January 17, 2006, relates to software that permits educational institutions to provide students with courses online. The claims include the ability to grant a single user different access rights to online resources (such as grades, files or quizzes) depending on the user’s role in a particular course (for example, as student, teacher or administrator). The re-examination request asserts that the patent’s claims are either obvious or anticipated by the prior art.
Richard Fontana, a patent attorney with the Center, claims that the patent is so broad that it effectively covers most e-learning software currently in use, and that it could undermine three open-source education software projects, Sakai, Moodle and ATutor, on whose behalf the re-examination request was filed. However, Blackboard, which has sued rival proprietary software maker Desire2Learn Inc. for infringement, has stated that it will not pursue claims against open-source projects or educational institutions. Nevertheless, Blackboard has not entered a formal non-assertion agreement with the Software Freedom Law Center, because, according to Blackboard, the Center insisted that Blackboard give up its rights to enforce both this and any future patents against any use of open-source software, whether by commercial or non-commercial organizations. However, according to Fontana, a narrower agreement would have been acceptable.
The tensions between patent holders and the open-source community have received increasing attention as of late. A number of major companies, including IBM and Nokia, have pledged not to pursue claims of infringement regarding use of their patents in the Linux open-source project.
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