Blackboard, known for its tenacity
in the e-learning market, announced on December 15 that it is backing off from
its long patent feud with the Canadian company Desire2Learn.
The
dispute dates back to 2006, when Blackboard sued Desire2Learn in a
Texas district court for 38 counts of patent infringement, seeking
millions in damages. The court only upheld
three counts, and both companies appealed the parts of the decision
they had lost to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit,
which in 2008 dismissed
all of Blackboard’s claims against Desire2Learn. But by then the
industry giant had filed additional patent-infringement lawsuits
against its smaller competitor, which were pending–until December 15,
when the rivals announced the détente.
. . .
Many advocates of open source learning management systems strongly
backed Desire2Learn in the dispute, and feared that a Blackboard
victory might open the way for the company to attack their products and
give the giant in the market too much control over it. While Blackboard
officials repeatedly said that their actions against Desire2Learn
didn't suggest any course of action against anyone else, the dispute
led to much public bashing of the company.
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