For completeness, the full text of the Sakai and Educause response is:

"The Boards of Directors of the Sakai Foundation and of EDUCAUSE  
recognize the patent pledge announced on February 1, 2007 by  
Blackboard as a step in a more positive direction for the community,  
to the extent that it offers some comfort to a portion of the  
academic community that uses open source or homegrown systems. In the  
pledge, Blackboard states that it will not assert certain patents  
against open source or home grown systems bundled with no proprietary  
software.  We particularly welcome the inclusion of pending patents,  
the clarification on the commercial support, customization, hosting  
or maintenance of open source systems and the worldwide nature of  
Blackboard’s pledge. We also appreciate the willingness of Blackboard  
to continue with frank and direct dialogue with our two organizations  
and with other higher education representatives and groups to work  
toward addressing these problems of community concern.

Although Blackboard has included in the pledge many named open source  
initiatives, regardless of whether they incorporate proprietary  
elements in their applications, Blackboard has also reserved rights  
to assert its patents against other providers of such systems that  
are "bundled" with proprietary code. We remain concerned that this  
bundling language introduces legal and technical complexity and  
uncertainty which will be inhibitive in this arena of development.

As a result, the Sakai Foundation and EDUCAUSE find it difficult to  
give the wholehearted endorsement we had hoped might be possible.  
Some of Sakai's commercial partners and valued members of the open  
source community will not be protected under this pledge.   
Furthermore, EDUCAUSE and Sakai worked to gain a pledge that  
Blackboard would never take legal action for infringement against a  
college or university using another competing product.  While  
Blackboard ultimately agrees that such actions are not in its best  
interest from a customer relations viewpoint, it could not agree for  
reasons related to its existing legal case. Our organizations will  
remain vigilant on this point as protecting our member institutions  
is of top priority.

While this pledge offers a formalization of Blackboard's past claims  
about the intent of its patents, it does not speak to the quality or  
validity of the patents themselves.  Sakai and EDUCAUSE maintain the  
position that Blackboard’s U.S. patent number 6,988,138 is overly  
broad, and that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) erred in  
granting it to Blackboard.  Furthermore, we believe that this  
conclusion will ultimately be decided by the re-examination of this  
patent through the USPTO and in the current litigation.

We hope that all of the organizations and individuals interested in  
educational technology will continue to focus our collective energies  
on improving software, and system and data interoperability with the  
ultimate goal of delivering truly innovative solutions to all  
teachers and learners."

Best, John

On 1 Feb 2007, at 16:34, Peter Kilcoyne wrote:

> excellent news, thanks for nsharing this Andy
>
> From: Virtual Learning Environments [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On  
> Behalf Of Andy Black
> Sent: 01 February 2007 15:02
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [VLES] Blackboard pledge
>
> FYI
>
>
>  this maybe of interest
>
>
> 1 February 2007
>
> Dear Blackboard Community,
>
> I am writing to share some exciting news about a patent pledge  
> Blackboard is making today to the open source and home-grown course  
> management community. We are announcing a legally-binding,  
> irrevocable, world-wide pledge not to assert any of our issued or  
> pending patents related to course management systems or transaction  
> systems against the use, development or support of any open source  
> or home-grown course management systems.
>
> We developed this pledge over several months with the help and  
> dedication of various members of the e-Learning community, such as  
> EDUCAUSE, Sakai and many Blackboard clients. We are very grateful  
> for their time and counsel. Without such a thoughtful and  
> collaborative process, this sort of unprecedented pledge for a  
> company of our size might not have been possible.
>
> "We particularly welcome the inclusion of pending patents, the  
> clarification on the commercial support, customization, hosting or  
> maintenance of open source systems and the worldwide nature of  
> Blackboard's pledge. We also appreciate the willingness of  
> Blackboard to continue with frank and direct dialogue with our two  
> organizations and with other higher education representatives and  
> groups to work toward addressing these problems of community concern."
>
> -Joint Statement of EDUCAUSE and Sakai Boards of Directors "We wish  
> to acknowledge the company's actions and express our appreciation  
> to Blackboard in committing to continue to foster creativity and  
> collaboration within the e-Learning community. Such a response can  
> only benefit the teachers and practitioners, the learners,  
> Blackboard, and indeed the wider e-Learning community."
>
> -Australasian Council on Open, Distance and E-Learning (ACODE) As a  
> longstanding and leading member of the e-Learning community, we  
> understand that Blackboard plays an important role in promoting the  
> open exchange of ideas, collaboration and innovation. This pledge  
> symbolizes our continued commitment to that role by agreeing not to  
> assert U.S. Patent No. 6,988,138 and many other pending patent  
> applications as well as their international counterparts against  
> the development, use or distribution of open source software or  
> home-grown course management systems anywhere in the world, to the  
> extent that such systems are not bundled with proprietary software.  
> This pledge also extends to the commercial support, hosting,  
> customization and maintenance of such applications.
>
> So those using home-grown or open source systems, professors and  
> teachers contributing to open source projects, open source  
> initiatives, commercially developed open source add-on applications  
> to proprietary products and vendors hosting and supporting open  
> source applications all are covered by this pledge. In addition, we  
> have extended the pledge to many specifically named open source  
> initiatives within the course and learning management system space  
> whether or not they may include proprietary elements within their  
> applications, including Sakai, Moodle, ATutor, Bodington and Elgg.
>
> We are very pleased to take this formal step which is part of a  
> larger effort on our part to engage more deeply with the e-Learning  
> community and help foster greater openness and interoperability. We  
> believe the pledge and the collaboration that brought it about will  
> support and promote new innovation and the free flow of ideas  
> across the global e-Learning community.
>
> The text of the Pledge which incorporates by reference a list of  
> frequently asked questions, as well as the announcement press  
> release may be found on our website at www.blackboard.com/patent  
> <http://click.blackboard-email.com/?ffcb10-fe22157172640d75721177- 
> fdf616767660017e71107671-fefc1571706301-fec41c737c65077e- 
> fe0415777762047f77157073> . If you have any questions about the  
> Pledge, please contact Blackboard's Chief Legal Officer, Matthew  
> Small, at [log in to unmask]  
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]> .
>
> Thank you again for your continued partnership.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Michael Chasen
>
> President and CEO
>
> Blackboard Inc.
>
>
>
> Andy Black
> Project Manager, Standards and Frameworks
> British Education Communication & Technology Agency
> TEL: 07801612459
>
>
>
>
>
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