Most of us would recognize a political difference between a country that merely holds nuclear weapons and a country which has used them (or threatened their use).
Michael Feldstein has urged Blackboard to follow IBM and Microsoft's example and turn over their patent to the community or, at minimum, promise not to pursue infringement claims. But that might not be fair and could be highly misleading if IBM and Microsoft, for example, have turned over only some of their patents, which we know to be the case, but in the meantime have filed for infringement or have collected royalties based on others. Wouldn't that be a clever ruse? I look like a good guy because I am sharing my patents selectively with some friends, particularly those that advance my strategic interests, but behind the scenes I am also bludgeoning my competitors.
The more useful list to compile it seems to me are those companies and institutions, particularly those we do business with or know, that have used and abused software patents (i.e. have filed software patent infringement claims or forced patent-based royalty payments). If we were to develop such a list, which companies would appear alongside Blackboard? Sun, Microsoft, IBM? Any educational institutions? I don't know.
Let's apply the same standard then to everyone, not just Blackboard.
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