D2L Blog

UPDATE: Blackboard vs. D2L Patent Litigation

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE:  for more information about the patent litigation from D2L's perspective, please read this article in Campus Technology:  http://www.campustechnology.com/printarticle.aspx?id=59935

Just a quick note about the patent litigation between D2L and Blackboard:  according to a recent article on The Chronicle, in somewhat of a surprise move, the judge in the patent case has issued an injunction against D2L, preventing the company from conducting any U.S. sales and banning it from "encouraging, supporting, aiding, or abetting the use of" its current platform.  The judge did stay the injunction for 60 days.

In response, D2L has ramped up work on its new version--8.3; we're on 8.2.2 in our production environment--which it says circumvents the patented processes of Blackboard.  They plan having this new version released before the 60-day stay has expired.

So, how does this affect us?  Well, as soon as 8.3 is available, we will install it in our test environment in order to figure out any changes, re-evaluate our processes to assure that they take any of this changes into account, and check for bugs.  If we are satisfied that the impact on learners and instructors will be limited, we will consider installing the new version in our production environment as soon as possible, if we can do so prior to the start of the summer term.  If we cannot do so by then, we may have to wait until the summer courses have concluded--and coordinate with the Med School and Health Sciences, because they are on a different academic schedule--before we roll out the new version.

Posted at 08:27AM Mar 13, 2008 by Eric James Mosterd in General  |  Comments[1]