The Chronicle: Blackboard Sues Rival Provider of Course-Management Software, Alleging Patent Infringement

I missed this excellent article from The Chronicle posted on Aug 2nd. It covers views and reactions from a few different fronts including Blackboard, Desire2Learn and clients. A few telling snippets:

"This is not a patent that covers all of e-learning," Mr. Small (Matthew Small, senior vice president and general counsel for Blackboard) said. "It doesn't cover all course-management systems."

He then goes on to say:

many e-learning companies could operate without infringing on the patent, though he declined to provide any examples. However, he also said that had Blackboard not merged with WebCT, then WebCT would have been infringing the patent.