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Opinion
Keep Your Own Counsel on the Blackboard Controversy
9/12/2006
- Nearly all of today’s commercially available Learning Management Systems started off as homegrown university systems that were later commercialized. For example, Blackboard started at Cornell University, WebCT [now merged with Blackboard] at University of British Columbia, and Desire2Learn at University of Waterloo. If a group on your campus wished to develop an LMS today, what would be your legal advice on the matter?
- Many of the features in commercial Learning Management Systems are the direct result of either customer requests for features or customers actually paying for features to be implemented. Given an environment in which such features are potentially patentable, how would you advise the institution to handle feature requests to the vendors?
The answers to these questions should help your institution to understand the legal risks and begin crafting a policy that will protect you in the changing environment.
Michael Feldstein is an Assistant Director at the State University of New York’s SUNY Learning Network. His blog, e-Literate, which focuses on online learning, has numerous current entries about the Blackboard patent including references, resources, analysis, and various points of view.
[Editor’s note: Desire2Learn’s Patent-Information Blog is another source of basic information about the patent lawsuit, along with Blackboard’s patent FAQ, About Blackboard Patents, mentioned above.]
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