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Minelab Sues Nokta


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If we go, we can say.. that the predecessor of the design for Quest was the "vertical design" of the XP panel, and Quest put the panel in a fixed handle with built-in batteries..

as for the Nokty Legend, the design and operation of the multi-frequency are quite similar to the design and operation of the Equinox multi-frequency "Multi -IQ"...,, but let's leave it to the experts to determine how similar or dissimilar these detectors are...

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3 hours ago, EL NINO77 said:

If we go, we can say.. that the predecessor of the design for Quest was the "vertical design" of the XP panel, and Quest put the panel in a fixed handle with built-in batteries..

First thing I thought of too. I have a Deus XP, seems like it was the first detector of that general style I remembered seeing. The general pod-like design seems to have started with it, the pod was just removable and the shaft was not straight. 

I never even heard of Quest until 4 days ago when coincidentally I was looking through old FCC docs and saw a "Deteknix" company, looked at the products, and they were these Quest detectors. Almost posted here to ask if anyone ever heard of them, they never seem to be in general conversations here. But decided since no one talked about them much they must be toys...?

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10 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Detector wars are prohibited on these forums, since it fosters conflict with fellow forum members. Calm sane rational discussion is the order of the day here, not picking teams and engaging in team sports. Nokta is no where near going out of business. That’s baseless pot stirring.

Nokta clearly lifted heavily from Minelab, especially in the look and feel aspect of the Legend user interface. Icons are near identical, for instance. Who knows about the aspects of the multi involved, more a question for engineers. We will see when details emerge, but one would assume Minelab is alleging some violation here regarding how the multi is implemented.

The irony here is Minelab immediately copied Nokta back, including the flashlight and up to now Nokta exclusive vibrating handle. Add the telescoping rod, and the new Equinox upgrades look more like the Legend than ever. A stick in Noktas eye?

People who wants to go on about this outfit copying that outfit don’t know how product development works. Companies copy what succeeds elsewhere all the time, in virtually every product made and service sold. Unless it violates a patent, it is the norm. Equinox is very similar to the earlier Quest designs. Who is copying who? Companies also cross license technology from each other as a regular part of business. Worst case here is Nokta might be forced up to pay Minelab if there was a use of some patent. I suppose they could try and force a stop in sale of product, but that’s pretty rare, unless it’s really blatant, like the Quest and Fisher thing. Or the whole thing gets dismissed as just another blocking tactic by Minelab, which they are not shy of undertaking, just to mess with the competition.

Be interesting to see how it unfolds, but pretty much a sideshow as far as most of us are concerned.

Equinox was released in 2018. This is the Deteknix Quest Pro and Deteknix Quest Gold from 2016. Anyone see any resemblance between these and the later Equinox, and then Legend? Or is it also the coincidence of great minds thinking alike, and form follows function? All smart phones look alike. Some of that is copying, but some is just because a phone needs to be a phone.

869BBC97-7FD0-4A84-9CF7-6B98E614B2E2.png

deteknix-gold-metal-detector.jpg

 

Your right.

Justice will prevail!

Unfortunately, the only winner here, will be the numerous attorneys involved.

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14 hours ago, EL NINO77 said:

If we go, we can say.. that the predecessor of the design for Quest was the "vertical design" of the XP panel, and Quest put the panel in a fixed handle with built-in batteries..

as for the Nokty Legend, the design and operation of the multi-frequency are quite similar to the design and operation of the Equinox multi-frequency "Multi -IQ"...,, but let's leave it to the experts to determine how similar or dissimilar these detectors are...

they were all copied from the deteknix brand detector which was the successor of the quest brand.  He was the first to use that form that later shamelessly copied minelab with the equinox

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21 hours ago, EL NINO77 said:

but let's leave it to the experts to determine how similar or dissimilar these detectors are...

The expert deciders are a judge and/or jury who likely have no tech background who are being fed "facts" by lawyers paid to zealously defend their clients and paid expert witnesses.  Such is the world of intellectual property law.  

Oh and you can't sue someone just because they stole your good idea if you didn't or couldn't patent that idea.

Finally, it is hilarious to see one foreign-based company sue another foreign based company in a US court.  ML did the same thing a few years back with XP (France) because ML hard the foresight to be the first to patent the simple and ubiquitous concept of connecting the detector control pod to a PC via USB for updating.  A feature that is expected to be provided with all recent detectors from the major players.

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I hope Nokta gets thru this ok.

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On 12/2/2022 at 2:54 PM, jasong said:

First thing I thought of too. I have a Deus XP, seems like it was the first detector of that general style I remembered seeing. The general pod-like design seems to have started with it, the pod was just removable and the shaft was not straight. 

I never even heard of Quest until 4 days ago when coincidentally I was looking through old FCC docs and saw a "Deteknix" company, looked at the products, and they were these Quest detectors. Almost posted here to ask if anyone ever heard of them, they never seem to be in general conversations here. But decided since no one talked about them much they must be toys...?

Quest actually makes pretty good detectors, some would say very good.

Threads tagged with “quest”

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I've worked in the software development industry more than 30 years now.  An old saw in software is that "R&D" stands for "Rob & Duplicate".

A guy I worked for, for many years.  A brilliant software engineer, marketer, salesman, workaholic and businessman all rolled into one.  Was with him from a few years after startup until he sold the company for nine figures (without ever going into debt or ever going public!).  One of his favorite sayings, was that "business is a contact sport".  He used lawyers and lawsuits to harass, distract, hamstring and wage scorched earth campaigns on his competitors in a way that was utterly ruthless and without moral compass. And he spent boat loads of money on that stuff. 

He's the one that made himself a very wealthy man and I'm the one still working for a living.

I've long since realized, this kind of stuff is just part and parcel of competition between companies.  And being the aggressor usually results in the better outcome - and a better outcome doesn't necessarily require a "win" on the legal proceedings.  

- Dave

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Competition always forces companies to make better products.  I don’t want Nokta to go out of business.  We’ll see how it gos.

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