The patent re-examination has been filed and things are starting to happen. Here are some URLs:
Educause Letter to BlackBoard (Scroll to the bottom)
I don't have much else to say beyond the FAQ and the press release. I am glad to be moving forward. The patent clearly was pretty poor.
Before the filing, I write a few posts about patents that allowed me to comment in an allegorical style without revealing what was being discussed or the strategy/approach being used by the SFLC.
These are from my earlier blog:
http://www.dr-chuck.com/csev-blog/000202.html
The implication is that a proper patent when filed goes to some length to find prior art.
I also wrote a blog post about the notion of software patents in general using the Boyer-Moore search as an example of how an idea should not be patented and how patents can be filed around an idea without patenting an idea.
http://www.dr-chuck.com/csev-blog/000201.html
This was not as strong but is an interesting take on things.
Posted by csev at December 1, 2006 01:18 PM