Waterloo-based Desire2Learn has succeeded in getting a preliminary rejection of all 57 claims in a software patent that Blackboard used to sue it for infringement. I wrote about the original case here.
Desire2Learn Wins Patent Battle in the U.S.
April 21, 2009
Share this post
4 Comments

Law Bytes
Episode 254: Looking Back at the Year in Canadian Digital Law and Policy
byMichael Geist

December 22, 2025
Michael Geist
December 8, 2025
Michael Geist
December 1, 2025
Michael Geist
November 24, 2025
Michael Geist
November 17, 2025
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Recent Posts
The Year in Review: Top Ten Michael Geist Substacks
The Year in Review: Top Ten Law Bytes Podcast Episodes
The Year in Review: Top Ten Posts
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 254: Looking Back at the Year in Canadian Digital Law and Policy
Confronting Antisemitism in Canada: If Leaders Won’t Call It Out Without Qualifiers, They Can’t Address It

college 1999 – prior art
college 1999 – prior art
based on a circle mud [ http://www.circlemud.org] ( with its liscense intact aka a free for non commercial use ) i designed a method of using the game like structure for interacting and making lessons fun.
While it was turned down by the college the students i worked with in its development loved it. Nothing like interactivity in the dark ages.
YOU could in effect go back to a dikumud and really go for it or if i had more time to develop back then i would have started form scratch and made my own.
all those styles a games offer a way to communicate via crude artificial intelligence pre programmed in.
Great News
If Blackboard’s patent claims are upheld, then it would be extremely difficult for anyone to get a foothold competing with them in the LMS market. WebCT/Blackboard are already lacking in a lot of ways. With no competition, I can’t see that improving.
Joke Patent
This is why software patents in Canada are illegal, idiocy like this. I’m going to extend to my department at Ottawa U here that we slap down a do-not-deal policy on Blackboard.
Joke Patent: response
The same patent granted in Canada in February 2009… the system is broken.