They ended up losing a lot of those claims recently if I recall correctly, but that being said I agree for a long time it did and still does hurt the LMS environment.<p><a href="http://mfeldstein.com/all-44-blackboard-patent-claims-invalidated-by-uspto/" rel="nofollow">http://mfeldstein.com/all-44-blackboard-patent-claims-invali...</a> (2008)