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...