After nearly seven years of waiting on a patent for "Internet-based education support system and methods," Blackboard Inc. finally had its patent approved on Jan. 17. On July 26, the company began its fight to protect it.
Blackboard, the software and e-learning giant whose Blackboard Academic Suite is familiar to UT students, has sued Canadian-based Desire2Learn Inc. for infringement on its new patent.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed in a U.S. District Court in Texas, any Desire2Learn products based on their own D2L course-management system violate Blackboard's patent, because they too closely resemble Blackboard's own course-management system. Blackboard also alleges that Desire2Learn infringed upon the patent willfully and will continue to do so unless the court intervenes. Blackboard, a Washington, D.C.-based company, is seeking royalties and wants to establish that their patent is valid and enforceable.
Officials from Desire2Learn Inc. were not available for comment on Wednesday.
"Blackboard has spent $100 million on its products. For anyone to come in and use what you've done and say, 'Look at my innovation,' it's wrong," said Matthew Small, the general counsel for Blackboard.
The patent could be found invalid for any number of reasons, said John Allison, a professor at the Red McCombs School of Business.
"A lot of patents, in general, are invalid, particularly in the software industry, because they are too trivial an advance, or they're too broad," Allison said.
The company says that it's not too broad and is trying to protect specific Blackboard functions.
One such function developed by the company is the ability of a single user to access multiple courses under different roles. For example, graduate students are able to access classes for which they are teaching assistants and classes they are taking as students.
"These things may seem obvious now, but they represent transformative breakthroughs by Blackboard," Small said.
Competing companies are not the only ones guilty of violating Blackboard's patents. Universities and other institutions also violate Blackboard's patent and, in one case, legal action was necessary, Small said. He also said that it is not the company's policy to sue its clients.
UT-Austin obtained a software license with Blackboard that allows the University to operate the company's central course management system legally, said Brian Roberts, a spokesman for ITS at the University.
Blackboard earned more than $93 million in profits for 2005 and operates in 60 countries with 2,200 client institutions.
In addition to the patent in the U.S., Blackboard has also been granted patents in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore and has patents pending in the European Union, China, Japan, Canada, India, Israel, Mexico, South Korea, Hong Kong and Brazil.
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