Patent Office to re-examine Blackboard learning patent

THE US PATENT office has ordered a re-examination of an "e-learning" patent owned by Blackboard Inc.

The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) had asked for the review on behalf of three open source software projects Sakai, Moodle and Atutor.

The Patent Office said that prior art cited by the SFLC raised questions about the patent.

Last August we reported that Blackboard had taken legal action against Desire2Learn Inc. This firm has also asked the patent office to re-examine Blackboard's patent. The re-examination will take two years. µ