Who invented e-learning computing?

Story: Patent rulings could destroy open source softwareTotal Replies: 5
Author Content
henke54

Aug 31, 2006
9:11 AM EDT
Quoting:(AP) -- Every day, millions of students taking online college courses act in much the same way as their bricks-and-mortar counterparts. After logging on, they move from course to course and do things like submit work in virtual drop boxes and view posted grades -- all from a program running on a PC.

It may seem self-evident that virtual classrooms should closely resemble real ones. But a major education software company contends it wasn't always so obvious. And now, in a move that has shaken up the e-learning community, Blackboard Inc. has been awarded a patent establishing its claims to some of the basic features of the software that powers online education.

The patent, awarded to the Washington, D.C.-based company in January but announced last month, has prompted an angry backlash from the academic computing community, which is fighting back in techie fashion -- through online petitions and in a sprawling Wikipedia entry that helps make its case.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/08/27/e.learning.dispute.a...
SFN

Sep 01, 2006
10:28 AM EDT
Quoting:The patent, awarded to the Washington, D.C.-based company in January but announced last month, has prompted an angry backlash from the academic computing community, which is fighting back in techie fashion -- through online petitions and in a sprawling Wikipedia entry that helps make its case


Oh, yeah. Blackboard is doomed. They might as well just give up.
nalf38

Sep 01, 2006
2:21 PM EDT 		What about the merger doctrine? You can't patent the idea of a virtual classroom, only its expression, and then only if there are multiple ways of expressing it. In other words, if there's only one logical way to make a virtual classroom, isn't the patent invalid? Of course, it takes a court battle to get to that point.
dinotrac

Sep 01, 2006
3:30 PM EDT 		nalf -

The notion that you couldn't patent a virtual classroom if there is only one logical way to express it presumes that the way you express it is obvious to a skilled practitioner. In fact, there is an underlying assumption that something can't be very obvious is nobody's ever thought of it before.

So...if it ain't novel, it can't be patented, but... if it is novel, it doesn't matter that there is no other reasonable way to do it.

Merger holds a lot more sway in copyright than in patent.
jimf

Sep 01, 2006
3:53 PM EDT 		dino,

I would argue that there is virtually nothing in this world which is 'novel' anymore. It's only the first guy to fight his way to the patent office.
dinotrac

Sep 01, 2006
3:57 PM EDT 		jimf -

Nah...that is what they said towards the end of the 19th century. Novel happens all the time.

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