Blackboard are not alone

03-August-2006

email this
SAP have applied for patents on e-learning systems.

Aha - we may have a fight on our hands.

Tim Schlotfeldt reports that SAP have applied to the European Patent Office for a patent including:

* CONTENT BASED MESSAGING FOR E-LEARNING
* STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS FOR A COLLABORATIVE E-LEARNING SYSTEM
* E-LEARNING STATION AND INTERFACE
* NAVIGATING E-LEARNING COURSE MATERIALS
* E-LEARNING COURSE EDITOR
* E-LEARNING AUTHORING TOOL
* OFFLINE E-LEARNING
* E-LEARNING SYSTEM
* E-LEARNING COURSE STRUCTURE
* E-LEARNING STRATEGIES
* CONTENT BASED MESSAGING FOR E-LEARNING
* STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS FOR A COLLABORATIVE E-LEARNING SYSTEM

Dirk Stieglitz has been burrowing away on the horrible EPO website and has come up with a list of SAP e-learning patent applications.

Can someone pass this on to Blackboard. Let the bastards slog it out in court I say. And the rest of us can get on with our work. But seriously, how many more of these applications exist?

And, one more worrying thing. The German government, which holds the rotating EU presidency for the first half of 2007, has announced a priority to strengthen Intellectual Property Rights.

Technorati Tags: ,


Graham Attwell; 03-August-2006 14:08:57; forum (0) help

Comments please

If you are already registered here, please click the "Login" button to send your username/password with the comment. Click the "Anonymous/Join" button to leave a comment without logging in.

Please tell us who you are

E-Mail Address (Required)
We need a valid email address in order for you to post a comment. You will recieve an email containing a special validation link. The comment will not be published until validated
Name
Please leave your name
Join the site (optional)
If you would like to join the site while posting this comment, then choose a username.
Usernames must contain no spaces or special characters.
Title
Lead-in
Body Text ( HTML tags are allowed )
Validation
Please enter the text from the image above
Preview your comment

Linking and trackbacks

When linking to this weblog entry, please use the 'permalink', which is http://www.knownet.com/writing/weblogs/Graham_Attwell/entries/7404860892

Some weblog systems will ask you for a "trackback link" (most systems will find this special 'hook' automatically, in the code for this page).

The trackback link for this entry is http://www.knownet.com/writing/weblogs/Graham_Attwell/entries/7404860892/tb