Blackboard v. Desire2Learn
This page aims to document (and educate the Moodle community on) the above captioned legal proceeding. This case has tremendous implications for all online course software, including of course, our beloved Moodle.
Filing of the Complaint
On July 26, 2006, Blackboard, Inc. filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Federal District Court in the Eastern District of Texas, Lufkin Division. A PDF of the Complaint can be found here. For some time now, East Texas has been well-known as a plaintiff-friendly jurisdiction. As you would expect, patent infringement is a very complex area. Going to trial in such an action is especially worrisome because outcomes are uncertain when average citizen-jurors are involved in absorbing the complex testimony and understanding the technical nuances inherent to patents. We can count on both parties making good use of pretrial motion practice, such as summary judgment. Unfortunately for the elearning communities sweating on the sidelines, this game will take years to play out.
The '138 Patent
The foundation of the Complaint is the Blackboard-assigned patent, US Patent 6,988,138 B1, and referred to as the '138 patent, in the shorthand of patent law. This patent issued on January 17, 2006, based on an application filed June 30, 2000. Due to problems with software patents at the USPTO, it frequently takes five or more years from submission of an application until first office action. And several more years to issue the patent.
In this section, we'll dissect the '138 patent claims to understand exactly what comprises this invention.
Desire2Learn's Answer to the Complaint
We patiently await the Answer, although federal court answer pleadings are usually quite uninformative. We would expect Desire2Learn to deny each and every count alleged in the Complaint, except for the trivial counts of place of business, etc. Desire2Learn would likely assert its affirmative defenses in the first Answer. We might predict affirmative defenses such as invalidity of the '138 patent and/or non-infringement of the '138 patent.
Desire2Learn Lawsuit Central
Desire2Learn put up a nice blog/information repository on the lawsuit. There are links to the the '138 file wrapper, and well as the Complaint, and presumably future pleadings as they are filed. There is also a request for the public to submit any known prior art to the company. This should round-out the prior art work going on in Wikipedia and Moodle Docs.
External References
Carnevale, Dan. 2006. Blackboard Sues Rival Provider of Course-Management Software, Alleging Patent Infringement. Chronicle of Higher Education xx:xxxx
Downes, Stephen. 2006. Blackboard Awarded Patent on e-Learning Technology. Stephen's Web (a blog).,,
