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Jury Rules Blackboard Has a Patent on LMS User Roles
By Richard Nantel | February 26, 2008
Let’s be honest. The world of learning technology rarely has much in the way of legal intrigue. A significant exception is the patent case between two LMS providers, Blackboard and Desire2Learn.
At the core of the case are Blackboard’s allegations that they hold a legal patent on the idea of user roles in learning management systems.
Alfred H. Essa, Associate Vice Chancellor and Deputy CIO, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, has written extensively about this case on his excellent blog, THE NOSE: Information Technology in Higher Education.
Mr. Essa describes Blackboard’s case as follows:
“Blackboard claims to have originated the idea of a learning management system in which the same user (call him “Joe User”) through a single account can have multiple roles. (See diagram below.) Thus, Joe User can have the role of a teacher in one class (e.g., Physics 101) and simultaneously the role of a student in another class (e.g., English 343). Each role corresponds to a different permission set. In his role as a teacher in Physics 101, for example, he might have the permission or ability to create tests. But in his role as a student in English 343 he can only take tests, not create them.”
The use of roles is so ubiquitous in software that it would seem surreal that such a case would stand any chance of being won in court. Regardless, a Texas jury ruled last Friday that Desire2Learn infringed on Blackboard’s patent rights and must pay damages of $3.1 million U.S.
Blackboard’s victory in this case must have many learning management system providers concerned. Desire2Learn is launching an appeal.
Topics: LMS, Learning management systems |
March 31st, 2008 at 3:55 pm
[...] in February, a judge ruled in favor of Blackboard in a patent dispute case involving the concept of multiple user roles through a single login. The [...]