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Same as having buying a home with a jetted tub — it’s nice to have, but we hardly use it. When we were looking at houses a couple months ago, the realtor kept bragging about the damn jetted tub. I finally asked her if she had one. She said yes. How often she or anyone in her family used it? Almost never, she admitted. Ugh! --Nokeke

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July 23, 2008

Blackboard Officials Say They Are Likely to Continue Legal Action Against Competitor

A federal judge in Texas ruled on Monday that Desire2Learn Inc. was not in contempt of court for releasing a new version of its software even though a previous version had been found to infringe a patent held by Blackboard Inc. But officials of Blackboard, the country’s dominant provider of course-management software, said they would most likely file a new lawsuit charging that Desire2Learn, their biggest competitor, has infringed Blackboard’s patent again with the new release. For complete coverage of the latest ruling, see a free article in The Chronicle. —Jeffrey R. Young

Comments

1. Of course they will.

   Why earn it when you can sue for it?

   $$$$$$$$$$$$$

   — Darrell    Jul 23, 08:39 PM    #

2. I wonder if Blackboard should perhaps be declared a criminal enterprise. I think they would try to patent air and claim it was their own idea if they thought there was a chance they could pull it off. The good news is that back in March, the PTO issued a preliminary ruling invalidating all 44 claims in their patent. Hopefully, that ruling will become permanent and that idiot judge in Texas will figure out that you can’t infringe on a patent that’s been overturned.

   — Bill    Jul 24, 07:07 AM    #

3. There are so many other learning management systems to explore for helping us understand the machinations of the entire industry. It is difficult to enjoy the Chronicle when so many other proprietary learning management systems have professional problems also. A large company’s problems are easy to report. It is tiring to constantly have the legal and professional bias against one company as the focus from Wired-Campus.

   — Jacquie    Jul 24, 07:46 AM    #

4. I want the Chronicle to report on companies like Blackboard that are acting like big bullies. They don’t deserve a monopoly on a concept – and the Patent Office made a mistake given it to them in the first place.

   — Bobby    Jul 24, 08:41 AM    #

5. This all misses the point – that Blackboard really, really stinks. I mean, it is is just enormously, hugely awful software, that stands in the way of education more than it facilitates it.

   — Al    Jul 24, 09:22 AM    #

6. I don’t care what program educators use but the program should be accessible and be compatible with JAWS, a screen reader program for students who are blind. Blackboard is not.

   — mk    Jul 24, 09:24 AM    #

7. Maybe if these folks had to work with “the new D2L” software they might conclude that leaving them alone could do more to draw people to Blackboard than lawsuits might do.

   — Ben    Jul 24, 09:58 AM    #

8. Ben knows what he is talking about. D2L, Sakai, and all the rest-just painful to use…Blackboard may be expensive—and holy crap is it ever—but it is far better than the others.

   — Shinobi    Jul 24, 10:56 AM    #

9. Precisely. But more than whether it’s better or not, once the faculty learns a system, it’s very, very difficult to make a change. Blackboard knows that. . .and charges accordingly.

   — Bill    Jul 24, 12:01 PM    #

10. We switched to Angel from Blackboard, I prefer Angel.

    — Kyle David    Jul 24, 03:17 PM    #

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