Mon, Feb 14, 2011
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.'
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