April 11, 2008
Patent Office Hands Blackboard a Setback
In March the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a preliminary decision that could have sweeping ramifications for universities that use course-management software, as well as for the companies that make it.
The "nonfinal" decision rejects all 44 claims Blackboard Inc. made for its controversial patent of an online-learning system. Recently, a federal jury in Lufkin, Tex., ordered a Canadian firm, Desire2Learn, to pay Blackboard $3.1-million for infringing that patent (The
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