Inside Higher Ed reports on Blackboard's latest loss, which is good news for universities and colleges who use open source software because we can be sure that despite their disclaimers, Blackboard would certainly move against open source courseware if they succeed against Desire2Learn and other private companies. Blackboard's loss is also an affirmation of common sense since anyone with long-time experience in course management software knew that Blackboard's patent claims were simply assertions, not valid original contributions to courseware delivery methods. ____JH
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"Both companies appealed the parts of the case they'd lost to the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has nationwide
jurisdiction over U.S. patent claims. Its highly technical decision
upheld the lower court's conclusion that Blackboard's claims 1-35 were
invalid. But the three-judge panel rejected the lower court's finding
that Blackboard's patented learning system had originated the approach
of giving a single user with a single log-in multiple roles, such as
being a teacher in one course and a student in another." "The
appeals panel embraced Desire2Learn's argument that such technology
existed in 'prior art,' in this case previously existing course
management systems such as Serf and CourseInfo 1.5. The appeals court
essentially ruled that the lower court judge had framed Blackboard's
claim incorrectly for the jury, said Bruce T. Wieder,
a lawyer for the Washington firm of Dow Lohnes who was not involved in
the case. Having done so, the Federal Circuit court "could have said,
'This is how you should have interpreted it, you go look at it again,'
" Wieder said. "But instead, the court said, 'Since we've seen what was
argued, we now can say that the district court wouldn't have come to
any conclusion,' and declared those claims invalid."
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