Congratulations to D2L in an important victory against Blackboard and their bogus patent. Apparently the judge ruled that the 1st claim (and all dependent claims 2-35) are invalid. It looks like this comes out of a portion of the case called a Markman Hearing where they establish common language and meaning of key terms for the trial.

So it looks like they got hung up on Blackboard's ability to define and back up the phrase "Means for assigning a level of access to and control of each data file based on a user of the system’s predetermined role in a course." D2L successfully argued that "the specification fails to disclose any structure clearly linked to the recited function," and so it was determined that the term is indefinite under 35 U.S.C. § 112.

I guess the logic then says: If the term is indefinite, then the claim must be invalid. Anyway, this seems to be an important win for them, and for the entire Education Community. Three cheers for D2L!

More information at e-Literate, and D2L's Blog.