Project Blue Ocean Phoenix

SDI/TDI SCUBA Training Agency Loses Appeal on Dismissal of Court Case against competition. (Read It)

In an effort to slow its competition, ITI Holding Inc., the parent company of the scuba training course brands Scuba Diving International (SDI) and Technical Diving International (TDI), had legal papers served on Joe Keiser on the floor of the DEMA Show on 5 October, 2005. This was in disregard to the rules of the DEMA Show and its organizers, and also contrary to efforts to further build up the public’s positive perception of Scuba Diving as a leisure time activity, countering the demand slump from which the industry has been negatively impacted.

The details of the original lawsuit can be seen at various industry news sites, such as the Cyber Diver News Network (http://www.cdnn.info) or Dive News Wire (http://www.divenewswire.com). Both of these news agencies were very quick to pick up on the negative news of the lawsuit. (Will they be just as quick to pick up on the corrective outcome?)

On 31 January, 2006, after only 4 months from the case’s initiation, David M Cohen, United States Magistrate Judge, dismissed the case. Details of the dismissal can be viewed at Magistrate’s Decision . Two months later, on the 9 March, 2006, George Z Singal, United States District Court Judge, reaffirmed the Magistrate’s decision and this can be viewed at District Court Judge Reaffirms Magistrate’s Decision.  Not being enough, the case was then taken to the United States Court of Appeals. Yesterday, more than 1 year after the case was filed, 3 senior appeals court judges have reaffirmed the original decisions.

Thus, it is now hoped that this saga is now finally over. We feel that this is the very type of behavior which certainly has no place in an industry such as ours, bringing the joy of safe scuba diving to people throughout the world. And we now hope that our membership, and all dive professionals, around the globe can return to conducting their business in the professional and supportive framework provided by all of the scuba diving training agencies.

We can finally announce that Intellectual Property protection has fallen into place for all of our websites under development, including Project Blue Ocean Phoenix. With the devlopement process being so dynamic, we needed a flexible protection tool which would cover the newest properties immediately. In this way we can show you sooner what has been developed by the team without risk of losing it. You will note a small logo with a CC in it on the right side of the page. If you click on that logo, you will find that the IP on the page cannot be copied for commercial purposes, nor can it be used for developing derivatives. This protects the development team from risk of having their work copied and used elsewhere.

In the past, we have also relied on the copyright protection afforded by certain websites, such as www.snapfish.com, to protect our artwork and other properties. This reliance will also continue into the future. (If you found www.snapfish.com helpful, or if you want to revisit our registered works there, the access codes given to you in June 2005 are still valid.)
Once the sites become stabilized, and mostly static, we will switch to a further copyright protection afforded to web-based materials, thus giving us a dual layer of protection.

And all logos and artwork are being registered as trademarks in the countries most relevant. But these will already be protected under the aforementioned IP protection schemes.

The Project Blue Ocean Phoenix is a collaboration of a group of leading technical and sport SCUBA DIVING educators, based around the globe, with the objective of developing a State-of-the-Art training progression up-to-date with the new millennium. The Project Team is focusing on developing training programs incorporating the latest technologies and techniques in both diving and training, using the latest concepts and practices available for packaging and delivery of product. This includes traditional deleivery in the form of books, but also internet-based delivery in the form of print and disk downloads, DVDs and e-learning technologies.

The project team are all very experienced and active divers, in the water every day in very differing climates and conditions, and utilizing different techniqus and technologies/equipment. Most are located in dive destinations, rather than just travelling to dive locations or being stationed in residential/origination markets. Project Blue Ocean Phoenix represents the first time that a development of a training program is being undertaken in such active diving environments. All developers are dedicated to increasing the quality and enjoyment levels of dive training, not matter what level of experience the student possesses or where the training takes place.

The utimate target audience of Project Blue Ocean Phoenix is the Universities of East Asia, the participants from which will be able to benefit most from a combination of easy access to technology and lowest cost delivery of product and programs.

We hope you will be watching Project Blue Ocean Phoenix as it progresses in the coming weeks.