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.