I am sure the combined expertise here could out-expert the "patent examiner" who allowed this particular patent to be filed......
Funnily enough, a patent lawyer explained to me once the original (~200 year old) reason for patents:

A patent is a bargain between the inventor and the Crown [the government] whereby the inventor discloses fully how the invention works and how anybody competent can replicate it, for the benefit of society as a whole, and in return for this disclosure the inventor is given a commercial monopoly for a specific time period.

There was never an intention to create monopolies as the prime objective.

LH2,

From a quick look, it would seems Mapserver would count as prior art of a more general nature (obviously it is not aviation specific), but it encompasses the general principle of merging vector and raster graphics and serving them over the internet. Good News!

Jan,

Patents protect intellectual property, the infringement does not need to be for commercial purposes, and the damages are the loss the patent holder experienced as a result of the infringers actions, not the profit or gain of the infringer. Same logic applies to file sharing of copyright material, just because you give away for free copies of Star Wars, doesn't mean you can't be sued.

As an aside, I would have thought Microsoft would have little to say about Linux as Windows is quite derivative in itself and Linux traces its roots to Unix, which substantially pre-dates Windows.

A friend of mine who has been quite deeply involved in filing some US patents advises me that the basic problem is that some patent examiners over there are essentially illiterate, not understanding what the application is about and instead picking up objections based on keyword searches which don't relate to the subject of the patent.

Deriving from "Letters Patent", used byt he crown for granting all sorts of privileges, titles and status. Judges, QCs and Peers are appointed by letters patent. In the case of IP rights, it has been formalised by legislation.

Letters Patent also turned pirates into privateers, making their business legit. Seems nothing much has changed. :)

It looks like FlightPrep wants a piece of the big guys too....

From AOPA Flight Planner does not infringe on patent

It's a typical predatory patent.

You file a patent, sit on it, and then see who happens to implement the stuff in it, and then you "ask" them for royalties.

Probably a lot easier than starting your own business :)

Sadly Runway Finder did shut down after all, the page being replaced by a blog which makes interesting reading.

My first step was back to the AOPA (US) flight planner and I'm jolly glad it's still there (for the moment), clunky though it is. It just highlights how far ahead Runway Finder was, as different as colour TV from B&W.

Ultimately I suspect the patentor will feature in some US action by the relatives of an accident victim whereby the safety of flight was eroded by the lack of previously available intuitive flight planning systems.

All very sad. I wonder if the patent applies in UK?

US patents don't apply in the UK, or anywhere except US jurisdiction. Often inventors file an international application, which is a way of applying for the same thing in multiple countries. However, that didn't happen here. There is no corresponding patent in Europe or anywhere else that I can see.