Blackboard Inc.

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Blackboard Inc

Type	Public (NASDAQ: BBBB)
Industry	Educational Software
Founded	Washington, D.C. 1997
Headquarters	Washington, D.C., United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Matthew L. Pittinsky Chairman of the Board Michael L. Chasen President, Chief Executive Officer, Director
Products	Blackboard Learn Blackboard Transact Blackboard Connect Blackboard Mobile
Services	E-Learning Consulting
Revenue	US$ 342.14 million (2009)[1]
Operating income	US$ 18.92 million (2009)
Net income	US$ 7.91 million (2009)
Employees	1240 (Q1 2010)
Website	www.blackboard.com

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

Contents 1 Products 2 Blackboard legal issues 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Products

Blackboard Inc. was formed by joining two companies: CourseInfo LLC, founded by Daniel Cane and Stephen Gilfus, and Blackboard LLC, founded by Michael Chasen and Matthew Pittinsky. Originally the Blackboard company began as a consulting firm contracting to the non-profit IMS Global Learning Consortium. In 1998, it merged with CourseInfo LLC, a small course management software provider that originated at Cornell University. The combined company became known as Blackboard Inc. The first line of e-learning products was branded Blackboard CourseInfo LLC, but the CourseInfo brand was dropped in 2000. Blackboard went public in June 2004. Blackboard software is used by over 3700 educational institutions in more than 60 countries.

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:

• Blackboard Learn 9.1, a "next generation" learning management system 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

• Blackboard Transact, 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

• Blackboard Connect, consisting of
  • Capabilities for the facilitation of Institutional communications and alerts.

• Blackboard Collaborate, consisting of
  • The technologies of Wimba and Elluminate from the July, 2010 acquisition.

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

• The former Angel Learning Inc's products, including
  • Angel 7.0

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.

[edit] Blackboard legal issues

• On October 17, 2000, Blackboard Inc. filed and won a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Control against a company called Cupcake Patrol for control of the domain name "Blackboad.com," which lacks the last 'r' before the final character.
• 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 (U.S. Patent 6,988,138). 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 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 Patent Information page which comprehensively documents Blackboard's complaint against them. The Federal Circuit has ruled in favor of Desire2Learn across the board and confirmed that all 38 patent claims asserted by Blackboard are invalid.
• After the announcement of the lawsuit against Desire2Learn, some in the e-learning community^[who?] 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, Online Learning History, to document existing examples of course management systems.
• Because of concern over the patent claims, some in the e-learning community^[who?] protested by calling for a boycott of Blackboard. See, for example, BoycottBlackboard.org. A web site against education patents, with a lot of information about the patent has been created: Noedupatents.org.
• On 9 August 2006, a 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: Groklaw.org
• On February 1, 2007, Blackboard announced "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. The "FAQ's" provide examples of protected use cases.
• On February 22, 2008 a Texas jury found Desire2Learn 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.^[2]
• On July 27, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled on the appeals that resulted from the trial in Texas against Desire2Learn, confirming that all 38 patent claims asserted by Blackboard were invalid.^[3] Blackboard said it would appeal to the Supreme Court.^[4]
• On Dec 15, 2009 Desire2Learn announced that, for the benefit of the users of their software, they were settling all pending litigation with Blackboard, and that they were making cross licensing agreements for all the patents.^[5]

[edit] See also

• Virtual learning environment
• History of virtual learning environments
• CourseInfo LLC
• Learning management system
• Stephen Gilfus
• Gilfus Education Group

[edit] References

1. ^ "Blackboard Inc. 2009 10-K". http://investor.blackboard.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=177018&p=irol-secToc&TOC=aHR0cDovL2NjYm4uMTBrd2l6YXJkLmNvbS94bWwvY29udGVudHMueG1sP3JlcG89dGVuayZpcGFnZT02NzcwOTA4&sXbrl=1&ListAll=1. Retrieved 2010-06-05. 
2. ^ Rejection of Blackboard's patent Retrieved November 11, 2008
3. ^ Federal Circuit Rules in Favor of Desire2Learn Across the Board Retrieved August 2, 2009
4. ^ Darlene Darcy (October 23, 2009). "Blackboard patent brawl could head to Supreme Court". Washington Business Journal. http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/10/19/daily118.html 
5. ^ Blackboard, Desire2Learn Announce Patent Cross License Agreement and Settlement of Litigation, Dec 15, 2009, retrieved Apr 19, 2010

[edit] External links

• Blackboard