Federal Judiciary

Federal Circuit affirms in part and reverses in part Blackboard v. Desire2Learn rulings

By Michael C. Smith

Back in February of 2008 the jury in the Blackboard Inc. v. Desire2Learn Inc. case, 9:06cv155 in Lufkin in Judge Clark's court found for the plaintiff on infringement and found that the defendant had not shown by clear and convincing evidence that the patent was invalid.  Plaintiff sought $17 million, and the jury awarded $3.1 million ($2.5 million in lost profits and $600k in royalties).  The trial went forward only on claims 36-38 of the patent, as Judge Clark had previously held claims 1-35 to be invalid for indefiniteness.
Last week the Federal Circuit affirmed Judge Clark's invalidating of the first 35 claims as indefinite, but reversed the jury's finding (and Judge Clark's denial of the JMOL on this ground) that claims 36-38 were not invalid as anticipated.  Since the anticipation finding deep-sixed the claims, the court didn't address D2L's claim that they were also obvious.  The court didn't address the infringement arguments on appeal, and held that Blackboard's appeal pertaining to the amount of court costs was moot.

Full post as published by Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice on July 31, 2009 (boomark / email).