[claviska]

I haven’t worked in academia for over 10 years, but back in the day Blackboard would either purchase or squash it’s competitors with litigation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANGEL_Learning

https://www.zdnet.com/article/blackboard-wins-e-learning-pat...

They even sued the government to prevent reexamination of their patents.

https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2008/12/01/da...

As an open source author who was once interested in producing an LMS, this was a major concern that forced me to explore other fields.

[fabbari]

Their patent is currently expired [0] in the US - but yes: it is a great example of overly generic patents.

[0] https://patents.google.com/patent/US6988138B1/en