I wonder if they researched existing patents before lauching that. Somebody with verrrry deep pockets owns some patents regarding wireless data and aircraft...
Just sayin'.
And for a patent to be valid the solution proposed must be "not obvious to those skilled in the art" which almost automatically invalidates 90% of recent patents issued. You patent a genuine invention or idea. Simple derivatives of existing technology are not patent worthy and are easily set aside if challenged. Then there is the most powerful of all "Prior art". Nuff said on that.
And yes, we are busy with our iEFIS as we have shown at Osh and this includes a Wifi node for obvious use for tablet based flight planning tools and other EFIS related tasks.
It's obvious....
Rainier
CEO MGL Avionics
As an aside:
The U.S. patent system coupled with an excess of "out of work" lawyers has given rise to a new industry roughly called the "patent trolls". The modus operandi is like this: You are a lawyer. You set yourself up with a newly registered LLC that owns a type writer (OK, PC). You find a couple of obviously invalid patents (does not matter if valid or not), you contact the owner(s) of the patents and promise to go after "infringers" for a cut of the proceeds. You then send a bunch of threatening e-mails to anybody and anything that could even vaguely be considered infringing with a tight deadline to respond (a week max) and the threat of impending legal action - but at the same time offering a "settlement", a way out.
The small company owner or individual that receives this will panic. He will contact a lawyer. The lawyer will tell him that to defend will cost him at least $2 million even if he is found not to infringe (which would be the most likely outcome anyway). It's cheaper to settle. The settlement amounts vary: $500.000 tends to be the high side but once the troll has you in his grasp he will lower the value if he can see that you don't have that kind of money lying around. He might go down to $50.000, even less. The troll does not want to go to court. That is a hassle for him as well - he will try and get whatever he can out of you - it's free money for him.
Companies that in turn challenge the troll and are equally aggressive tend to be quickly dropped from the rolls list, he is not interested in fighting. He knows that he will loose.
Lastly, it is interesting to pursue the net a bit and find a couple of cases where the troll gets his way and the scared defendant pays the settlement. How much of that money would you think makes its way to the original patent holder ? The lawyer will first take his agreed share, then charge "costs" usualy close to the value of whatever is left - leaving little to nothing to the original owner of the patent. Don't believe that ? - try Google a bit.
All of this is a direct result of the far too high work load of the U.S. patent office caused by legislation intended to promote inventors (Inventors are born, they are not made) . Applications are simply accepted and filed without due process or the required peer judgement. It is simply left to the courts to decide if a patent is valid or not, and in this context a jury that does not have a clue needs to decide.
Lawyers (on both sides of the divide) just love this...
All of the current EFIS manufacturers, big or small does not matter, are subject to continuous harassment by patent trolls in the past few years. This is not going to change.
There is a patent for EVERYTHING. Only relatively few are really genuine, respectable patents in the original context of what a patent was to be. You basically cannot make anything at all without infinging (however vague) dozens or hundreds of patents.
