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August 27, 2008, 03:38 PM ET
Patent Office Will Continue Reexamination of Blackboard's Controversial Patent
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected a request by Blackboard Inc. for a temporary halt in the office’s review of a software patent the company holds concerning course-management systems.
This year Blackboard won a lawsuit in federal court against a rival software company, Desire2Learn, for violating the patent, though Desire2Learn has appealed the decision. Meanwhile, Desire2Learn had formally challenged the validity of the patent with the patent office, arguing that it is overly broad and covers technology that other companies had developed before Blackboard filed its patent. The patent office issued an initial verdict in March that rejected all 44 of the claims that make up Blackboard’s patent. But that review is “nonfinal,” meaning that the review is still underway.
Blackboard officials filed a request to the patent office in May asking that the review of the patent be put on hold until the patent lawsuit is fully resolved. The patent office denied the request this month.
“You run the risk of having conflicting rulings along the way, so we had asked the patent office to stay the reexamination,” said Matthew Small, Blackboard’s general counsel, when asked why the company made the request. He described the setback as “a small procedural matter.”
Bruce Wieder, a partner with the Washington law firm Dow Lohnes, said he was not surprised by the decision, since the patent reexamination and the lawsuit are both well under way and are sufficiently different. “As my mother used to say, It never hurts to ask,” he quipped. He said final decisions were not expected anytime soon in either proceeding, and that it would likely be years before the patent issue is resolved.
Officials from Desire2Learn touted the ruling on a blog it runs tracking the patent dispute. “We look forward to the next step in the reexamination process,” said the statement. —Jeffrey R. Young
Categories: Legal-Troubles
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