Runway Finder Shutting Down

[AZtailwind]

Originally Posted by BrentHumphreys

A friend of mine forwarded me this link that It hits the nail on the head as far as why Runway Finder was targeted.

http://www.somebits.com/weblog/aviat...t-7640098.html

Yea, I'm in with a few T-shirts, ASA needs to be boycotted for this type of desperate action. Good description of the mess... Incredible that they would go after Runway Finder for the ability to draw a line across a map, etc etc.

[Jamie]

Originally Posted by N8RV

Some in the pilot community are of the opinion that patents are unfair and should not be granted for software. We doubt we can change their minds with this news release. However, the fact is many patents are issued for software inventions every year. Without them inventors would have little incentive to advance state of the art technologies. Applying for patents and seeking royalties are normal and sound business practices and are done by virtually all successful technology businesses, large or small.

"Software Inventions". Lawyer speak for "programming." Geez.

So since Flight Prep seems to be reading this forum, I would love for them to explain to me how their patent is "state of the art", much less how it "advances" anything.

Yeah, I know that companies of all size do it. You see, that's the problem. I can't sit down and write some code without infringing on someone's patent. IBM owns over 1,000,000 software patents - and that's just one company.

[John Clark]

Originally Posted by Carl J. Niedermeyer

AOPA has been advised by its flight planning partner, Jeppesen, that the online flight planning methods employed by the AOPA Internet Flight Planner, which is powered by Jeppesen, do not infringe on the patent recently awarded to FlightPrep.

Translation: We (Jeppesen, owned by Boeing) have a lot more and better lawyers than you have at FlightPrep. So p*** off!

John Clark ATP, CFI
FAA FAAST Team Member
EAA Flight Advisor
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA

[AlexPeterson]

Originally Posted by N8RV

I hate it when grownups can't resolve a problem honestly. From the above link, this:

We are writing this release to dispel some significant misconceptions regarding our dealings with Mr. David Parsons of RunwayFinder, LLC.

Mr. Parsons, on his own accord and in an apparent ploy to gain sympathy from the pilot community, shut down the RunwayFinder website on December 13, 2010 at 11:25pm PST, in the face of our good faith offer to provide RunwayFinder a free license during negotiation for a constructive resolution to our dispute and absent any demands by FlightPrep. FlightPrep attempted to contact Mr. Parsons numerous times prior to his decision to shut down RunwayFinder, including a call on December 13, 2010 at 1:00pm. However, Mr. Parsons did not return any of our calls.

Some in the pilot community are of the opinion that patents are unfair and should not be granted for software. We doubt we can change their minds with this news release. However, the fact is many patents are issued for software inventions every year. Without them inventors would have little incentive to advance state of the art technologies. Applying for patents and seeking royalties are normal and sound business practices and are done by virtually all successful technology businesses, large or small.

As part of this process, FlightPrep attempted to contact Mr. Parsons of RunwayFinder, LLC by phone and registered letters on numerous occasions over a protracted period of time. All of these attempts were ignored and rejected. Absent allowing RunwayFinder unfettered and uncompensated use of our intellectual property, a lawsuit was our only remaining next step.

Mr. Parsons response was to elect to try this case in the court of public opinion instead of employing professional and good faith business practices. Since this technique is counterproductive, we did not care to participate. Yet, we find we must respond to news reports and RunwayFinder?s blog posts containing several distortions and outright false statements about FlightPrep, its employees, representatives, technology, and motives. This latest move of RunwayFinder, electing to shut down its website, is another example of an attempt to inflame the pilot community.

In spite of the foregoing, FlightPrep stands by its offer to grant a free-license to RunwayFinder to operate its website during this negotiation phase of 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.

If you would like to learn more about our online flight planning patent, please visit http://www.flightprep.com/license or email license@flightprep.com.

So, who is telling the truth? One side or the other is not being honest.

Wow, FlightPrep's statement is loaded. Impressively condescending.

[Ron Lee]

"In spite of the foregoing, FlightPrep stands by its offer to grant a free-license to RunwayFinder to operate its website during this negotiation phase of 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."

This sounds cooperative. Am I missing something?

[ChiefPilot]

Originally Posted by Ron Lee

"In spite of the foregoing, FlightPrep stands by its offer to grant a free-license to RunwayFinder to operate its website during this negotiation phase of 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."

This sounds cooperative. Am I missing something?

Yes. They offered a temporary free license while their lawsuit is still pending. How impressive of them.

[ChiefPilot]

Originally Posted by John Clark

Translation: We (Jeppesen, owned by Boeing) have a lot more and better lawyers than you have at FlightPrep. So p*** off!

Although as a software engineer I agree wholeheartedly about the basic notion of software patents (it's bad), part of me would like to see Jeppesen go after FlightPrep.

I also wonder how much effect this action will have on them. Will they even notice?

[MartySantic]

Now that the AOPA is involved, hoping the AOPA will share their research with Dave at RunwayFinder and get Dave's site up and running again. Hoping Dave will make the call and discuss the same with the AOPA legal staff.

[Kenny Gene]

I've read all the posts, they have grown from 7 pages this morning to over 13 tonight,, WE ROCK AS A GROUP!!

How about having AOPA, Jepp and EAA ALL 3 get on the same page, get Dave's "Stuff" and make Runway Finder a part of all three,, sharing for flight planning,,, All 3 groups have huge numbers, both in members, organizations and supporters with very deep pockets,,

Just a thought.

Kenny Gene

[GregM]

I fired off a letter today to all the addresses that Doug had listed. I did get a reply basically paraphrasing everything they have said in their blog. I also told them that nobody in our aviation unit would be buying their products anymore. So, I encourage everybody else to do the same. I believe they have placed their bets and might be questioning whether or not it was wise to have done it.