Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) and Desire2Learn Incorporated (Desire2Learn) announced today that the companies have reached an agreement to license each other’s worldwide e-learning patent portfolios and settle all outstanding litigation between them.

Blackboard Inc. was formed on the joining of two companies. CourseInfo LLC, founded by Daniel Cane and Stephen Gilfus, and Blackboard LLC, founded by Michael Chasen and Matthew Pittinsky.

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Blackboard portfolio of products are termed the Networked Transaction Environment (NTE) and the Networked Learning Environment (NLE). [2,3] The NTE product is the Blackboard Commerce Suite which contains the Blackboard Transaction System, the Blackboard Community System and Bb One.

“Blackboard’s upcoming merger with CourseInfo gives us a fantastic opportunity to provide higher education with a web-based course management system that leverages our work with the Educom Instructional Management Systems project” said Blackboard Chairman and CEO Matthew Pittinsky. “As the primary technical contractor to IMS, Blackboard has long been a supporter of open standards for Internet-based education. All Blackboard products will be based on IMS in the short term and fully IMS compliant as the standard evolves.”