About Us

Building Block CLE, fondly known as bbcle.com, was founded in 1999 to provide convenient, high quality Continued Legal Education (CLE) courses to the intellectual property community. It started with two beliefs:

1. The need existed in the busy IP community for a way to do CLE on line that would be easy to use, convenient and useful in day-to-day practice; and


2. On line courses had to be adapted to both the advantages and the limitations of the media, since the media could not be adapted to fit a given course.

Easy to use and convenient, we finally concluded meant that courses had to be available 24/7 and that anyone with a credit card could do a course anytime, anywhere in the world. It also meant that every course would be one hour so that lawyers could grab CLE in between trials, writing applications or providing advice. The courses must have the ability to be paused without having to start over. From the very beginning, we insisted that we had to have a sufficient number of courses so that every aspect of IP law is covered, and everyone can find a course that fits their needs and interests. Presently we have over two hundred course available and expect that number to rise to more than three hundred in a couple of years. Every major development in patent law will be immediately followed by one or more courses at bbcle.com.

Adapting to the media, we chose not to use Streaming Video, which on the small screen is boring and problematic at best. We embrace audio, which works well now, and we will do the same for video when the product quality increases as technology progresses. We provide interaction in the way of bulletin boards and quizzes in each course, and lots of hyperlinks to source material.

We perceived that the present CLE for IP professionals, in addition to being inconvenient, is too focused on recent developments and what rules and regulations say. While we too cover recent developments, we have basic courses that teach all aspects of basic intellectual property (IP) law. All of the courses approach their subjects from a practical standpoint - how does this really work in practice, and what secrets and tips can we provide that you can use to help your clients today.

Lawyers and professionals from all over the United States and from all parts of the profession have contributed courses. Many have been written by, and many more edited by, Jim Longacre who serves as Academic Director, and who has practiced patent law and taught for more than thirty years.

Sue Maheu is President of BBCLE.com and acts as its CEO. She has more than twenty years experience working in and creating patent service companies, and brings to the business an ability to manage complex systems, and a commitment to continue to improve and expand bbcle.com.

The company is located at 48 Hillcrest Drive, Stafford, Virginia 22556. We can be reached toll-free at 1-866-MCLE-NOW (1-866-625-3669), locally at 540-752-9196, or by email at info@bbcle.com.