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 278: Ben Waldman on Gander Social and the Challenges of Building a Sovereign Social Network
byMichael Geist

August 10, 2026
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Michael Geist on Substack
Recent Posts
The Lessons of 9/11 We Forgot After October 7th
Named to Canadian Lawyer’s Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers
Be Careful What You Wish For: Why Asking Google Maps to Defy the U.S. on Lake Ontario Would Undermine Canadian Digital Sovereignty
Big Money, Bigger Design Changes: What the Meta Settlement Means for Canada, Bill C-34, and the Age Verification and Privacy Risks That Remain
Unleashing the Trolls: Ontario Court Opens the Door to Liability for Influencers Who Weaponize Their Audiences

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.