Old News about D2L vs. Blackboard

I'm just passing along the following questions and answers from the D2L Patent Blog.

Q. Does Learning Environment 8.3 infringe Blackboard's Patent?

A. No.


Q. Didn't Blackboard try to get the court to say LE 8.3 infringed?

A. Yes, but the court ruled against Blackboard.


Q. Why did the court rule against Blackboard?

A. Because the court found (1) that the design of the system was in Canada; (2) that the steps of the method patent were not performed in the US for clients who were hosted on Desire2Learn servers in Canada; and (3) that the installation step of the method patent was not performed in the US for clients that are self hosted in the US.


Q. Does that mean Desire2Learn is a safe choice?

A. Yes. The safest choice, in fact. Only Desire2Learn performs steps of the patent outside of the United States. No other Blackboard competitor that we know of can say that.


Q. Does the patent affect any non-US clients?

A. No, not now, not ever.


Q. What about the appeal?

A. It's proceeding. Of course, we've already paid the judgment and are hopeful that with a successful appeal that money will be returned (with interest).


Q. What about the Patent & Trademark Office?

A. The non-final rejection of all 44 claims still stands, and we're awaiting a final rejection. Blackboard keeps trying to suspend that proceeding, for obvious reasons.

End of Desire2Learn blog post. Now for my comment:

In other words, no news is no news. Carry on.
BTW, Blackboard still sucks.

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