Though Quiet For Now, The FlightPrep Mess Continues On

RunwayFinder's Dave Parsons has updated the latest in the soon-to-be-long-winding saga of FlightPrep v The World Of Aviation. In a note sent to ANN, Sunday, and published on the now dormant RunwayFinder.com site, Parsons notes that, "The RunwayFinder attorneys filed a motion two weeks ago in the Oregon district court to dismiss FlightPrep’s lawsuit based on a lack of personal jurisdiction. My understanding of the motion is that FlightPrep filed their lawsuit with the wrong court. They could of course file again with the correct court. I hope instead they start taking a different approach rather than continue the full-court press against pilots that run websites as a hobby."

RunwayFinder.com...
In Better Days

Obviously as tired of this process as the rest of us (and for far better reasons), Parsons adds that, "I would like to be able to report some good news, but there isn’t much of it. Although things have quieted down, they are certainly not going any better. RunwayFinder is still offline. We are preparing the reexamination request, and I’m confident their patent will be drastically reduced in scope if not completely nullified. As I mentioned before, reexamination is a long process. Although it may not help the immediate situation, it will improve the outlook for online flight planning in the future. I appreciate all of the support. Hopefully this some day comes to a resolution."

On a side note, Parsons shares the news that 'another person has independently made a website that displays aviation charts in a Google Maps-style interface. It doesn’t have all of the features that RunwayFinder had, but does include more chart types: vfrmap.com.'

FMI: www.runwayfinder.com, www.boycottflightprep.com, www.flightprep.com