A federal jury in Texas ruled this afternoon in favor of Blackboard Inc., the nation’s leading online provider of course-management software, in its patent-infringement lawsuit against Desire2Learn Inc.
Blackboard sued the smaller Canadian-based company in 2006, asserting that it had infringed a patent that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had granted Blackboard that year. As a result, the larger company said, Desire2Learn had taken away customers that should have been Blackboard’s.
Desire2Learn, which has its headquarters in Kitchener, Ontario, argued that Blackboard’s patent was invalid and should never have been granted in the first place. Lawyers for the company said that Blackboard officials were aware of similar technology, or what’s known as “prior art,” that existed before it filed its patent application, and that the company had failed to divulge that information to the patent office.
The jury, which began deliberating just before noon on Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Lufkin, Tex., announced its verdict this afternoon. The case has been closely watched by campus-technology officials, many of whom feared that a win by Blackboard could stifle innovation and leave colleges and course-management software providers vulnerable to more legal challenges by Blackboard. —Katherine Mangan
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It would be hard I would think to prove the Blackboard people had knowledge of "prior art". The fact that they had the patent application filed first would probably weigh heavily in their favor, right? What I wonder is, if it is proven that they had knowledge of it, then they would be unable to protect it, and it would fair game for anyone in the blackboard market.
ReplyDeleteHere's a fun one to consider when it comes to who "blew" onto the scene first...
http://randazza.wordpress.com/2009/02/17/air-o-matics-claim-to-trademark-infringement-doesnt-pass-the-smell-test/
First, it's kind of ridiculous to claim that they have any patent rights on anything called "pull my finger". That one was patented long ago, way before them. Now, "iToot" sounds like they have something differentiating to take to market. This name has linked itself to the same company that makes the ipod. So the consumer automatically knows it's affiliated with Apple. I would grant that trademark. But something as commmonplace as "pull my finger" is not. If they had put a slightly different spin on it, maybe they could have gotten away with it.
Dave