Course-management industry giant Blackboard faces what will likely be a critical legal challenge after a group of open-source advocates filed a formal request to have the company's 44 patents revoked.
The open-source groups are alleging that the patents - which were awarded to Blackboard in January - would give the company a virtual monopoly on online learning technology by allowing Blackboard to use the patents to sue its competitors.
Blackboard already sued another course-management entity, the Canadian company Desire2Learn, in August, citing its patents in the lawsuit.
It has received harsh criticism as a result from the academic community, some members of which believe Blackboard will resort to lawsuits against educators as well.
Blackboard considerably increased its power in the industry by acquiring the largest e-learning company in the United States, WebCT, last February.
Penn officials had discussed replacing its Blackboard Learning System with open-source program Sakai Project as the school's primary course software last spring.
Unlike Blackboard, open-source programs are free of charge.
