Patent lawsuit troubles flight planners
Online flight-planning ­provider RunwayFinder shut down on December 13 in the wake of a patent lawsuit filed by Aurora, Ore.-based FlightPrep.

Online flight-planning ­provider RunwayFinder shut down on December 13 in the wake of a patent lawsuit filed by Aurora, Ore.-based FlightPrep. The patent, which was approved in December 2009 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, applies to graphical route overlays on navigational charts via a Web page and using a remote (read Web server-based) chart database.

At face value, the patent appears to apply to nearly every online flight planner. FlightPrep would not answer AIN’s query about which companies might be violating its patent, but it is known that, at minimum, SkyVector, RunwayFinder, AOPA/Jeppesen and Flight Plan have been contacted.