NAFI Says It Will "Vigorously And Adamantly Oppose" The Move

Two weeks after a lawsuit was served on the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) for copyright infringement and unfair competition, a Motion for Preliminary Injunction has been filed to put a halt to what is described in the motion as NAFI's unauthorized use of Master Instructor Program-related intellectual property.

The motion was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on October 14, on behalf of Plaintiffs Sandy and JoAnn Hill, who claim authorship for the creation of the Master Instructor Program. Joining them is Rich Stowell, creator of the Aerobatic Instructor Designation Program, a derivative of the Hills' work.

According to the motion, the Hills "conceived of the idea of creating a continuing education and credentialing program for professional flight instructors" in the early 1990's. The Hills researched and wrote the program on their own volition from 1995 to 1997. The NAFI board "made no motions and held no votes" in response to drafts of the program presented to them by the Hills. Moreover, NAFI "never employed or compensated [the Hills] to develop and author" the program. The motion further asserts:
There is no written agreement between [the Hills] and NAFI specifying that the Master CFI Program is a work for hire owned by NAFI. There is also no written agreement between [the Hills] and NAFI purporting to transfer ownership of the copyrights to the Master CFI Program to NAFI.

The motion says NAFI's royalty-free, non-exclusive license to provide the Master Instructor Program to its members was terminated earlier this year, yet the organization continues to misappropriate program materials. The motion stresses that NAFI's conduct "is clearly having an adverse impact on the economic value of the Master Instructor Program [and] has caused and will continue to cause confusion and resentment among flight instructors regarding the status, source, and origin" of the program. NAFI has until October 26th to respond to the motion.

NAFI responded that it will "vigorously and adamantly oppose any legal action that seeks to prohibit it from issuing new and renewal NAFI Master Instructor accreditations."

"Two former board members filed suit in federal court in Los Angeles last month, claiming they own the NAFI Master Instructor program, the organization's 12-year-old professional development program," NAFI said in a news release. "They have continued to escalate the dispute by filing a motion for preliminary injunction on October 14 to stop NAFI from operating NAFI's program. The court has not granted the injunction-and will not take any action regarding the matter, until evidence from both sides is heard."

"In spite of the motion, we're standing by our NAFI Master Instructor accreditation program, as well as those members who have received new and renewal accreditations in good faith," said NAFI Executive Director Jason Blair. "We certainly don't agree with the allegations that have been made, and we will lay out our case in the appropriate court when that time comes. We trust that, through the legal process, NAFI's operation of its NAFI Master Instructor program will be vindicated with a finding by the court that doesn't penalize our members for their hard work and dedication to the industry."

FMI: www.masterinstructors.org, www.nafinet.org