HEY!! PEOPLE!! Blackboard is Coming to Patent You!
Epic picks up on this thread that I have seen little coverage on (please correct me if I am wrong). I know that we are all excited that the USPTO has agreed to review all 44 claims of the bb patent BUT I was surprised at how little coverage the REST of the bb patent portfolio has received.
Check out this list people....assessment within a multi-level organization, curriculum planning and curriculum mapping, importing and exporting assessment project related data, Content and portal systems and associated methods...and it goes on. Are you serious!!?? Are we all just so burned out on the evil of their original patent that they are just going to walk through unscathed with all these? Anybody doing the math and figuring out that while bb weakly pledges that they aren't coming after open source, they are still filing this bucket load of patent apps? These claims above were FILED in 2006..not granted, FILED...that means at the same time that all of this stuff is breaking and bb is getting hit with all the bad pub, they plunge ahead with more and more filings....Lets turn up the heat here and not let them skate just because were all still a little staggered from the first round.
It's obvious that the USPTO is out to lunch, and doesn't have a clue about prior art. Bb is taking advantage of this, as any "corporation" would do. There is no logic to the system, but in the end it may mean nothing, when in 18 months Bb files for bankruptcy due to its unsustainable business model.
Posted by: Harold Jarche | February 14, 2007 at 07:55 PM