From: Michael Chasen
To:  Bb & WebCT Listserves
Re: Blackboard Patent

Dear Client Community:

During the past week, I have had a chance to speak with some of you individually about Blackboard’s patent and the current legal action against Desire2Learn, Inc. I wanted to take a moment to reach out to all of you and share some more details on this very important topic.

From recent discussions and posts on various listservs, it seems there is quite a bit of confusion about the scope of the patent and our intentions behind the legal action. I hope that the information I am about to share will help to clear up some of this confusion.

I’d like to start by providing background on the history around our patent.  After the release of our first products, we looked at the course management system (CMS) technology available at the time and identified improvements that would enable the CMS to function as a true enterprise application for educational institutions.  We focused our resources on developing solutions with the student-centric functionality which would allow the Blackboard CMS to serve the increasingly complex needs of our clients.  Though we were still in our early stages as a small player in the software industry, we recognized the importance of protecting our innovations in our products.  As a result, seven years ago, we filed for patent protection on these developments in various countries around the world.

Some of the outside commentary about the patent misrepresents the scope of the patent and appears to be creating confusion for many people.  The Blackboard CMS patent covers only specific features and functionality contained in the Blackboard system that were developed by the Blackboard team.  We certainly did not invent e-learning or course management systems, and I am personally embarrassed that this is what some people thought Blackboard was claiming.  Over the last decade and longer, fantastic advancements have been made throughout the e-learning industry by a diverse and passionate community of individuals and institutions and Blackboard is privileged to have been a contributor.    

We are asking Desire2Learn for a reasonable royalty for their use of our intellectual property, which is in line and consistent with industry practices.  Blackboard, for one, pays royalties to numerous companies and we are asking for Desire2Learn to do the same in return.  We hope that you will come to see that our patent and law suit are not a dramatic change for the industry, but a fair course for us to protect our investments in our technology and your investment in Blackboard.  Our aim is to build an organization that will endure and be there to support you as your needs evolve. 

Having invested well over $100 million in developing our products (and being one of the few companies who have committed such investment to the development of technologies for educators), we embrace the responsibility we have to continue to deliver the innovations you need to fulfill your institution’s mission. Since Blackboard was founded, our primary goal has been to enhance teaching and learning worldwide through hard work, investment and innovation.  We neither intend to depart from that tradition nor limit the wonderful work being done outside of Blackboard to extend our products throughout our growing community of practice.

To provide you with further information on our patent and the law suit, we have posted a press release and FAQ about our patent, as well as a recent article from The Chronicle of Higher Education on our website at www.blackboard.com/patent.

Should you have any questions regarding the above, I welcome you to contact your Blackboard representative.  Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Michael Chasen
President and CEO
Blackboard Inc.