Patents Overview
From NoEduPatents
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The Problems with Patents for Educational Software
A number of recent software patents, of which the Blackboard attempt to manage course management systems is a good example, have three serious problems.
- Prior art, much of it in the public sphere, has been ignored even though the engineers and management of Blackboard are likely to have known of the existence of these systems. Efforts to make a well known repository of prior art and ensuring that the USPTO and all major companies in the industry are aware of this repository should help.
- The bar for innovation is low. There is little that is technically innovative in Blackboard's system.
- Aspects of the system such as look and feel and (arguably) interaction pattern which are better protected by copyright are being protected by patents, which should be limited to what is truly innovative.
There are general problems with software patents. Please see the website nosoftwarepatents.com, who have published information about the problems with software patents in general. (The website's audience is the EU, where there is an ongoing controversy about whether or not software patents should be part of European patent law.)
Companies with Education Patents Granted or Pending
- Blackboard <- lots of information on this page
- SAP - US Patent 7029280: E-learning course editor
