A patent infringement trial is about to start where Blackboard (a large educational company) is suing Canadian company Desire2Learn for infringing Blackboard’s patent for “Internet-Based Education Support System and Methods”.
Heroically, patent victim Desire2Learn is blogging about the trial. And what’s this patent about? As one piece notes,
Blackboard claims to have originated the idea of a learning management system in which the same user (call him “Joe User”) through a single account can have multiple roles. (See diagram below). Thus, Joe User can have the role of a teacher in one class (e.g. Physics 101) and simultaneously the role of a student in another class (e.g. English 343). Each role corresponds to a different permission set. In his role as a teacher in Physics 101, for example, he might have the permission or ability to create tests. But in his role as a student in English 343 he can only take tests, not create them. Millions of dollars have been spent on both sides over the “intellectual property” of this single Idea.As they note,
“Now, the entire problem with this patent is that the idea is obvious. The idea of roles, including multiple roles, has been around for ever in computer science. And since most software engineers don’t think about writing down obvious ideas (unless there are management types hovering over their shoulder and goading them on), let alone patenting them, there might not be a paper trail anywhere to establish prior art.”Ah, well, so what? Our courts of “justice” will figure it out, right? Or is this another example of monopoly capitalism at work? As one blog notes,
Blackboard is a publicly traded company with a market cap of over a $1 Billion. Desire2Learn is a small but rapidly growing Canadian company with a relatively loyal customer base. By all accounts Blackboard’s patent is a stupid one and never should have been issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The litigation cost (est. $4M - $8M) is a drop in the bucket for Blackboard. But it means a terrible bleed for Desire2Learn.
