I think people need to be aware that "open source" VLE's such as Moodle are developed by all in the community, everyone adds a small plug in here and there. What are Blackboard going to do, take legal action against the world?
I think people need to get this in perspective.
Gary
________________________________
From: Virtual Learning Environments on behalf of James Clay
Sent: Wed 02/08/2006 13:11
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VLES] FW: [sloan-c] Blackboard Patents the LMS
As they have applied for the same patent elsewhere, nowhere seems to be safe...
Patents corresponding to the U.S. patent have been issued or are pending all over the world
including in the European Union, China, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand India,
Israel, Mexico, South Korea, Hong Kong and Brazil.
Source: http://www.blackboard.com/company/patentFAQ.htm
Regards
James Clay
On Wed, 2 Aug 2006 13:01:16 +0100, Tom Franklin <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>I have just posted the following to JISC Legal Information Service, which
>as you can see I have asked them to post to this list. It seems to me that
>this could have a profound effect on the use of VLEs, at least in the US,
>and may force some comapnies to relocate to Europe and not sell to the
>US.....
>
>
>You may, or may not, have seen the flurry of activity on a number of lists
>- including the JISCMail list "VLE" about Blackboard's patent on learning
>management systems, and their suing Desire2Learn (see http://mfeldstein.com/
>index.php/weblog/permalink/blackboard_patents_the_lms/, http:// <http:///>
>www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/
>webadmin?A2=ind0608&L=vle&D=1&T=0&O=D&X=2712B30979DD2BDD94&Y=tom%
40franklin-
>consulting.co.uk&P=47 etc.)
>
>I think that it would be extremely helpful if you could post a comment to
>the discussion forum answering at least the following questions:
>
>Could the patenaffect Moodle and other open source products? (I would
>assume that the answer is yes)
>
>What evidence is needed to demonstrate "prior art" and
>would this invalidate the patent, or only specific parts of the patent?
>
>Does the patent affect the UK directly in any way (ie other than affecting
>US products or sales to the US)?
>
>What action, if any should we be taking?
>
>Thanks for your help.
>
>Tom
>
>Tom Franklin
>Franklin Consulting
>9 Redclyffe Road
>Withington
>Manchester
>M20 3JR
>
>email: [log in to unmask]
>phone: 0161 434 3454
>mobile: 07989 948 221
>web: http://www.franklin-consulting.co.uk/
>blog: http://tomfranklin.blogspot.com/
>
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