Flight Prep, which has received a patent for its online flight planning tool, has granted a temporary license to RunwayFinder.com while the two companies try to iron out their legal dispute.
When Flight Prep filed a lawsuit against RunwayFinder.com for using the technology without a license, the website’s developer, Dave Parsons, said the action would force the website to shut down Dec. 10, causing an uproar among its users.
The website was still active as of Monday, Dec. 13, when Flight Prep released this statement:
“Although we believe RunwayFinder infringes 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 it website during this negotiation phase our 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.”
Look for an in-depth story in an upcoming post on GeneralAviationNews.com.
For more information: FlightPrep.com, RunwayFinder.com
As of right now I agree with Mike Beck. I have never used FlightPrep and now will attempt to never use it. Runwayfinder was a great tool for many pilots out there to use for free. Over all this has been a great disappointment to say the least.
It would also mean that RunwayFinder would have had to acknowledge that the FlightPrep patent and lawsuit have merit, which they don’t.
Just wanted to reply to the comments here: RunwayFinder has been granted a temporary license by FlightPrep, what it means in general is this: RunwayFinder can run their site during the entire negotiation process without infringing on the FlightPrep patent. So even if the negotiations go south, that would now mean that there is no infringement during the negotiation period that RunwayFinder had a free license. FlightPrep has asked, is asking, and would be very happy to see RunwayFinder turn their site back on.
Does FlightPrep think that this is the way to get future customers? RunWay Finder is not up because there is no real operating agreement. Those that need their services will use them, and those that need a quick vfr overview will go back to DUATS and NOAA. I will now go a long way out of my way in the future to never use FlightPrep.
This did not work, Runway Finder is shut down as of this writing.