News/Analysis By ANN Editor-In-Chief Jim Campbell (Still Alive and Kicking)

On the cusp of FlightPrep's first major public event after taking a cyber-drubbing from the GA community over their ham-fisted attempts to profit off a recent and oft-questioned patent approval, things seemed to have changed again. What was expected to be a confrontational scenario (with GA community threats of boycott related activity to be held at the Lakeland Fly-In) now seems mysteriously quiet. At the center of the an online storm that erupted late last year when FlightPrep attempted to seek financial consideration from a number of online flight planning utility sites for 'infringement' of their IP, FlightPrep was excoriated by thousands of flyers and GA advocates over what was termed to be heavy-handed, even under-handed, attempts to force such sites to pay them royalties or licensing fees over questionable accusations of patent infringement.

The ensuing battle cost FlightPrep dearly in terms of popular support and their name was soon tossed around the GA community as if it were an epithet, while FlightPrep undertook some even more questionable actions to attempt to avoid the negative sentiment and press. As previously noted, the aero-brouhaha started when legal personnel representing FlightPrep sued a highly-regarded (and free) online flight planning site by the name of RunwayFinder. Like many such sites, RunwayFinder's Dave Parsons noted that his site was hand-coded and operated with very little financial compensation. While Parsons shut the site's flight planning functionality down for fear of running the meter on FlightPrep's astounding assessment of potential financial damages (estimated to be as much as $3.2 million per month), he decided to fight the patent's claims on his site and started a Legal Defense Fund in order to raise the necessary capital to fight the mess. Over the course of a number of months, Parsons updated the site's blog sporadically, vowing to fight the suit and promising that any money donated would go only to the legal fight and that if he had anything left over he would, "... forward any funds remaining to the next company that FlightPrep goes after. If the issue dies out, I will pass the money to another general aviation defense fund project. This seems like the fairest way to make use of your donations. I appreciate any amount you can give."

RunwayFinder.com in 2010

This week, RunwayFinder reappeared and seems to be on the mend... but not without some apparent cost. The site now carries a visible pronouncement of its operation under a license from FlightPrep and Parsons won't answer questions about what happened and how the matter was 'settled.' A simple statement, apparently written without much in the way of copy-editing (please note that we have not corrected or changed anything in this short statement), states that, "RunwayFinder is back on the air! Thanks to your overwhelming support and some great communication sat down with FlightPrep and FlightPrep agreed to dismiss the lawsuit! The exact details of the settlement license are confidential. RunwayFinder does not ask for or support any further boycott of FlightPrep, its services, products, or owners. This is a big win for RunwayFinder and the pilots who depend on its services! We're back and lawsuit free, come check out www.runwayfidner.com. Again, thanks you for all of your support."

Attempts to get additional info from Parsons were answered with a terse 'no comment' -- and it appears to ANN that Parsons apparently had had enough and backed down from his previously intransigent position... and in the face of a company that seems quite prone to litigate rather than ameliorate, this may have been the best thing he could have done for himself. Still... one wonders what happened and what FlightPrep's next presumably obnoxious move may be...

Or have they made it already?

BoycottFlightPrep.com, a protest site that had gathered over 1200 'signatures' from flyers protesting FlightPrep's actions has gone off radar... or the web... as the case may be. The site is down, is listed as 'suspended' and the site's ISP has a note on the page asking the owner to contact them. Was the site shuttered via a legal assault? no one knows for sure... though the details sure seem to suggest that the site's disappearance was anything but voluntary.

From what we can surmise so far, FlightPrep is still obviously looking for a serious paycheck for the efforts expended in achieving their patent approval... even though this effort has reportedly taken nearly a decade and had been refused at least seven times before its completion. Software and patent pundits have indicated that the FlightPrep patent is quite vulnerable but anyone fighting its effects are likely to find it costly, simply because patent law is not cheap. Further; there are a number of credible reports that seem to conclude that FlightPrep continues to look to expand the reach of its patent and that other companies working in the flight planning arena, and not necessarily just those presenting such functionality online, may soon be vulnerable.

Yes, the quest for hard cash seems to continue unabated at FlightPrep... with reports that nearly everyone connected with the offering of any flight planning service was contacted by their attorneys seeking "confidential" consults in order to arrange for a licensing agreement. No one seems immune to their quest for patent licensing moolah... AOPA, FlightAware, Jeppesen, you name it. And through it all, FlightPrep has apparently considered each and every protestation an anti-American affront to their alleged genius.... hinting at what appears to be considerable institutional arrogance. At one point, Flightprep's Roger Stenboch labeled the anti-FlightPrep movement, "the collective rage of a mislead mob stirred up on the internet."

And no matter what, FlightPrep seems unwilling to admit that they may have misread the will of the industry, the value/validity of their so-called patent, and the fact that the GA community does not take well to opportunism without significant merit. In the meantime, FlightPrep has deleted negative references on its blogs and FaceBook pages, keeps trying to portray itself as a victim, and appears to have had some involvement in threats made to ANN after the initial round of stories appeared detailing this fiasco.

Where it goes from here is anyone's guess... but the 'licensing' statements would appear, on their face, to bolster their attempts to go after the larger, more profitable online flight planning sites -- and so we await word on the status of their legal requests to entities such as Jeppesen, AOPA, and other significant targets for their dreams of patent treasure. More info to come...

FMI: www.runwayfinder.com, www.boycottflightprep.com (suspended at this time)