Formal Challenge Launched To Blackboard's E-Learning Patent
from the about-time dept
E-learning company Blackboard didn't make many friends earlier this year when it started suing others over a questionable patent that appears to broadly cover the concept of e-learning. The deeper you looked at the patent, the worse it looked, and so it should come as no surprise that a group has now requested that the Patent Office review and invalidate all 44 claims of the patent. Of course, the review process takes forever, and has all sorts of appeals built into the system -- meaning that it's unlikely that any such review will be completed by the time Blackboard's lawsuits are concluded. Since the law is clear that a patent has to be considered valid, it means all sorts of trouble for companies and schools in the e-learning space until the review process is exhausted. That's just one of the problems with a system that makes it relatively easy to get a patent, but extremely difficult to challenge one.
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This tool is the main on line learning resource used at my university and i use it on a daily basis.
With the way these tech companies do business with lawsuits instead of competition these days I'm not surprised to see other companies try it.
Its a sue or be sued world out there.
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patents are a rich mans tool
This would actually make patents EVEN HARDER to obtain (and keep), but the onus would shift from paying lots of money to incompetent and unqualified patent office researchers, to a significant time investment doing proper research.
Im my opinion this would lead to fewer patents but set the bar much higher for quality.
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Re: patents are a rich mans tool
Can I add "obviousness"?
Im my opinion this would lead to fewer patents but set the bar much higher for quality.
That is a very good thing.
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As I said, it's "relatively" easy. It does involve some steps, but the process is relatively simple these days, especially if you have a lawyer who's done it before.
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Blackbord blows anyway
I've had to use it for this past semester and had nothing but problems with it. The Java applications are incredibly slow to load and the "browser" check only recognizes IE and older versions of Firefox, so each and every time I log in, I'm forced to wait until it tells me that I'm running a non-compliant browser (FF 2.0) and close the window. Plus, I'm forced to open my system to all types of java-script hacks just to use the thing.
I hope they loose the ability to keep other companies from competing. Perhaps in another year, something better will come along.
EtG
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Re: Blackbord blows anyway
Jeff
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