[Bodington-developers] OSS VLEs &Bb patent

[Adam M. <ada...@co...>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Randy Metcalfe via RT [mailto:oss...@rt...] 
Sent: 01 August 2006 12:20
To: ada...@ou...
Subject: Re: [rt.oucs.ox.ac.uk #983489] OSS VLEs &Bb patent



Hi Adam,

(Glad to see that your inquiry has finally made to our RT queue :-) )

Obviously this is a cause for concern, even if Blackboard's patent 
pending in the European Union fails at the outset. Many of the larger 
open source VLE projects are based in countries where such a patent 
application might be successful (initially) and that will have 
ramifications on all such development work no matter where it is located.

The full implications will take time to evaluate. Rowan is better placed 
to give an initial assessment of the patent itself as I know he has been 
giving it a close read. But the real issue probably turns on whether the 
patent can be overturned on a 'prior art' argument, or whether 
Blackboard will treat this as merely a defensive patent, in much the way 
IBM and others do with much of their patent portfolio.

The latter already appears not to be the case as, I believe, suit has 
been filed against Desire2Learn. The former is still up in the air. I 
know that the leaders of other open source VLE projects are currently 
gathering whatever data they can in case a prior art case needs to be 
launched.

In the short term, I would recommend that Bodington do that as well. 
Meanwhile OSS Watch will be following this development closely and will 
let you know as and when we have further information or further thoughts 
on the implications.

If you were wondering whether this is a one-off, you'll find it isn't. 
Blackboard has a great of number of patents pending.

http://v3.espacenet.com/results?sf=a&CY=gb&LG=en&DB=EPODOC&TI=&AB=&PN=&AP=&P
R=&PD=&PA=blackboard


Best wishes,

Randy


-- 
Randy Metcalfe            Research Technologies Service		
OSS Watch                 University of Oxford			
                           13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN
                           t. +44 (0) 1865 283416
                           http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/



Adam Marshall via RT wrote:
> <URL: https://rt.oucs.ox.ac.uk/Ticket/Display.html?id=983489 >
> 
> Now that Bodington is OSS (or at least will be with the next release 
> in a week or so), could OSS Watch give their view on the 
> implications of Blackboard's patent:
> http://gauss.ffii.org/PatentView/EP1192615 ?
> 
> adam
> 
> 
>