Thought this was some interesting information.

Apparently, the company that owns BlackBoard now has a patent on the Learning Management System. From the plain language version of the patent, http://tinyurl.com/g29ao , it appears BlackBoard can now claim intellectual property rights to the functionality of nearly every LMS that has been created since the early 1980s. Note that almost every aspect of the patent applies to the current iteration of WebTycho (announcements, discussion board, chat, assignment drop box, etc.). It is also interesting that one day after securing this patent, BlackBoard filed suit against http://www.desire2learn.com/ , for copyright infringement. It seems unlikely that this patent will stand, as there is a lot of prior art that can invalidate BlackBoards’ claims to these LMS features. But, with the US Patent and Trademark Office recent track record of allowing patents for such obvious things as Amazon’s 1-click purchase, who knows what will become of this.

I have collected a series of links on the subject, if you are interested in reading more. There is also a Boycott BlackBoard website where you can add your name to a petition.