I used to work with Blackboard learning software back in my days at Wabash College. They were still a small company then, with only a couple of hundred clients. I really liked working with the software, and the folks at the company seemed nice enough (myself having gotten to know a couple of them personally). However, even at that early stage, it was clear that Blackboard was out to own the CMS market and to make a powerhouse company.

That's why it wasn't very surprising to me today to see the news that Blackboard claims to have invented and own all learning on the Internet. Well, that they invented the LMS at least. Take a look at the patent application. Looks pretty all-encompassing to me. Blackboard has already sued one of its competitors, and you are sure to see them go after more. There is much rumbling in academia about the threat this poses. Could this patent pose a threat to open source software like Moodle or Drupal?

For an easy example of how this might effect people, consider this PALNI website is powered by Drupal, an open source CMS (and at least in my mind the differences between CMS systems and LMS systems are pretty much blurred). Blackboard could, in effect, claim that it has patented all of the technology that runs this site. The potential impact of a claim like this is really truly astounding if you think about it. This is going to be fun to watch. I suppose a lot of it will depend on how much Blackboard depends to go after its competitors. Blackboard certainly has the capital to pay a lot of lawyer fees.