Blackboard Inc.

Infobox Company
name = Blackboard

type = Public (nasdaq|BBBB)
genre =
foundation = Washington, D.C. 1997
founder =
location_city = Washington, D.C.
location_country = United States
location =
locations =
area_served = Worldwide
key_people = Matthew L. Pittinsky Chairman of the Board Michael L. Chasen President, Chief Executive Officer, Director
industry = Educational Software
products = Blackboard Academic Suite, Blackboard Commerce Suite
services =
revenue = 239.45 million (2007) [http://finance.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:BBBB]
operating_income = 19.96 million (2007)
net_income = 12.87 million (2007)
owner =
num_employees = 890 (Jun 2008)
parent =
divisions =
subsid =
slogan =
homepage = [http://www.blackboard.com blackboard.com]
footnotes =
intl =

Blackboard Inc. NASDAQ|BBBB is a software company based in Washington, D.C. Blackboard went public in June 2004.

Products

Blackboard develops and licenses software applications and related services to over 2200 education institutions in more than 60 countries. These institutions use Blackboard software to manage e-learning, transaction processing and e-commerce, and online communities. Blackboard's product line includes:

* The Blackboard Academic Suite, consisting of
** The "Blackboard Learning System", a course management system
** The "Blackboard Community System", a community and portal system
** The "Blackboard Content System", a content management system

* The Blackboard Commerce Suite, consisting of
** The "Blackboard Transaction System", a Transaction Processing System tied to university IDs
** The "Blackboard Community System", an e-commerce front end for the Transaction System
** "Bb One", a network of commercial and retail business that accept Blackboard-powered debit card transactions

* The former WebCT Inc's products, including
** "Blackboard Vista", a course management system
** "Blackboard Campus Edition", course management system.

Though Blackboard software is closed source, the company provides an open architecture, called Building Blocks, that can be used to extend the functionality of Blackboard products. The Blackboard Vista and Campus Edition products are extensible through a technology called PowerLinks.

Blackboard legal issues

* On October 17 2000, Blackboard Inc. [http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2000/d2000-0811.html filed a complaint] with the World Intellectual Property Control against a company called Cupcake Patrol for control of the domain name "Blackboard.com".
* In April 2003, the company sued security researchers Billy Hoffman and Virgil Griffith for publishing, and planning to present, a paper highlighting security flaws in their Blackboard Transaction System.
* On January 17 2006, Blackboard was granted US patent 6,988,138 on "Internet-based education support system and methods" (with other multinational patents having been issued or pending) with claims over features of course management systems (US patent|6988138). Some of the claims include making announcements, assigning projects, providing course information, and letting students see their grades online.
* On July 26 2006, the company issued a press release regarding its patent portfolio and on that day [http://www.immagic.com/eLibrary/ARCHIVES/GENERAL/USCOURTS/T060726C.pdf filed a lawsuit] against Desire2Learn (D2L), another course management system provider, for patent infringement, using the above patent to assert its rights under US patent law. The Complaint was filed in Federal Court in the Eastern District of Texas, Lufkin Division, a rural East Texas judicial district. Desire2Learn has posted a [http://www.desire2learn.com/patentinfo/ Patent Information] page which comprehensively documents Blackboard's complaint against them.
* After the announcement of the lawsuit against Desire2Learn, some in the e-learning community felt that the patent award ignored prior art on e-learning and distance education and started a Wikipedia page, History of virtual learning environments, and a Moodle Docs wiki page, [http://docs.moodle.org/en/Online_Learning_History#1999 Online Learning History] , to document existing examples of course management systems.
* Because of concern over the patent claims, some in the e-learning community protested by calling for a boycott of Blackboard. See, for example, [http://www.BoycottBlackboard.org BoycottBlackboard.org] . A web site against education patents, with a lot of information about the patent has been created: [http://noedupatents.org Noedupatents.org] .
* On 9 August 2006, a [http://www.immagic.com/eLibrary/ARCHIVES/GENERAL/USCOURTS/G060809C.pdf complaint] was filed against Blackboard, Inc. by Portaschool of Atlanta, GA in the United States District Court of the Northern District of Georgia for deceptive business practices, and knowingly and willingly misrepresenting themselves in a patent application.
* On January 25 2007 it was announced that the Software Freedom Law Center was successful in its request that the United States Patent and Trademark Office re-examine the e-learning patent owned by Blackboard Inc. The request was filed in November 2006 on the behalf of Sakai, Moodle, and ATutor. The Patent Office found that prior art cited in SFLC's request raises "a substantial new question of patentability" regarding all 44 claims of Blackboard's patent. Groklaw, a website that tracks legal issues generally related to Open Source software, has the press release: [http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2007012520202052 Groklaw.org]
* On February 1 2007, Blackboard announced via [http://www.blackboard.com/company/press/release.aspx?id=956876 press release] [http://www.blackboard.com/patent/FAQ_013107.htm "The Blackboard Patent Pledge"] . In this pledge to the open source and do-it-yourself course management community, the company vows to forever refrain from asserting its patent rights against open-source developers, except when it is itself sued for patent infringement.
* On February 22 2008 a Texas jury found Desire2Learn [http://news.therecord.com/News/article/312927 liable] for infringing on the Blackboard, Inc. patent.
* On March 25 2008, the US patent office issued a non-final action rejecting all 44 claims of Blackboard's patent. [http://mfeldstein.com/all-44-blackboard-patent-claims-invalidated-by-uspto/]

ee also

* Virtual learning environment
* History of virtual learning environments
* CourseInfo LLC
* Learning management system

External links

* [http://www.blackboard.com Blackboard]