Free Flight Planner Website Founder Fears Financial Ruin
News and Analysis By Jim Campbell, ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief (NOT
A Lawyer... And Have NEVER Played One On TV)
ANN has just learned that the
FlightPrep v RunwayFinder legal skirmish appears to have come to a
bad end. RunwayFinder.com Founder, Dave Parsons, notified ANN via
an email link to his blog update (responding to
our request) that he had shut the site down fearing the
consequences of an aggressive legal action he was ill-equipped to
fight.
Parson noted that, "I was hoping to be able to work out an
agreement with FlightPrep where the lawsuit against RunwayFinder
would be withdrawn and the website could stay online in return for
some free advertising and removal of this entire blog post.
FlightPrep has instead decided to keep the lawsuit active, so
unfortunately RunwayFinder must be shut down. FlightPrep has posted
some sort of temporary license on their website instead of
contacting me directly, but unfortunately does not provide relief
from their claimed damages. From FlightPrep’s
attorney’s letter of December 9th: 'While we appreciate your
offer to shut down the website to stop future infringement, we
notice that your website is still operation. And without further
information from you, our only means to assess the potential
damages is the observation that your website had 22,256 unique
visitors in July 2010. Each visit represents a potential lost sale
of our client’s patented invention at $149 per sale. This
damage calculation exceeds $3.2 million per month in lost
revenue.'”
Parsons added that, "Shutting down RunwayFinder is not an
admission of infringement or validity of the FlightPrep
patent."
Earlier, FlightPrep appeared to be attempting to mollify the
uproar that had occurred when the lawsuit against RunwayFinder was
made public. Condemnation from the aviation community towards
FlightPrep was swift, aggressive and overtly negative. Regardless;
FlightPrep eventually disclosed that, "Although we believe
RunwayFinder infringes on our patent, we also believe it is in the
best interests of pilots to have RunwayFinder as an operational
website. Accordingly, we have offered to grant a free-license to
RunwayFinder to operate its website during this negotiation phase
our legal dispute. We are not asking RunwayFinder to shut down and
in-fact are offering them a temporary free-pass at our technology
in hopes that this gesture of goodwill will better enable both
RunwayFinder and FlightPrep to constructively work toward a
mutually beneficial long-term solution."
ANN is in possession of well over 300 pages of patent
documentation and has only been able to look it over, in
detail, for the better part of an hour thus far. To say that
the matter is legally complicated is an understatement.... but the
current scenario suggests that no matter the viability of the
FlightPrep patent and IP, FlightPrep has taken an aggressive stance
in protecting a patent that has broad and potentially
"Over-Reaching" implications for the Flight Planning community...
Additionally; numerous cites of web-based flight planners in
existence prior to the 2001 patent do exist and when looking at
both offerings (RunwayFinder and FlightPrep), one might call them
similar in the way that a Piper Cub is similar to the SR-71 -- they
both being airplanes with the ability to fly. So... those
questioning the ultimate legal validity of the FlightPrep claim
might have a point... if they wish to defend it in court.
ANN had some intriguing discussions with FlightPrep and their
Patent Attorney on Monday. The FlightPrep patent allegedly dates
back nearly a decade and went through a number of iterations and
even prior refusals by the US Patent Office before finally gaining
their approval with the issuance of Patent US 7,640,098 nearly a
year ago.
While there is no question that any unique Intellectual Property
has a number of rights and privileges, especially when protected by
a patent, the story has the flavor of a David and Goliath
encounter... with one wondering how a site that was based on
original and unique code (RunwayFinder) presented a danger to
FlightPrep's IP and the potential for 'millions' of dollars in
damages. And we have to tell you that the claim that RunwayFinder's
potential infringement was costing FlightPrep upwards of 3 millions
bucks a month simply doesn't pass the smell test. Such a claim
appears to be "over the top" -- even for the opening salvo in new
litigation.
Regardless; ANN continues to research the story, its effects on
the industry (as well as potential issues of flight safety), and
reports of other possible victims (including one site that
reportedly shut down when RunwayFinder was sued due to fear
that they were 'next'). More info will follow...