Minelab Coil Patent Application

[Aureous]

10 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

As aggressive as Minelab has been in court, I wonder if they sometimes just make patents on the chance (likely or outside) that they will come up with an application for it, and meanwhile dare anyone to try something close.

When you're the big bully on the block you can sometimes get by with just flexing your muscles....  That is until David comes along with his slingshot.

Yes, this is exactly what ML are known to do. For many years, ML used Govt subsidies to retain or expand patents which normally would have expired, like their MPS and DVT patents. Also the DOD coil was or is patented despite being a known design for over 30 years. They imagine wonderful new terms like 'ZVT' and patent it, despite it being just a fancy version of BiPolar PI tech which Eric Foster dabbled with back in the 1980's. They rightly protect what they perceive as their security in the industry and often take this concept to extremes. Its worked....how much REAL competition have they had in the prospecting PI market since 1995? Next to none. I suppose its because of this, they can expend AU$20M+ to develop the GPX6000 and ask AU$8,000 for it. Both good and bad end result. Good coz it provides us with next-level equipment to find lots more gold, but bad coz it drowns competition and keeps prices high. The one positive trade-off is that our spent $$ on Minelab equipment provides the excessive profit margins to fund the next generation of detectors. Pain for Gain lol

[EL NINO77]

Now for the patent of Minelab and the new coil ... no one moved my mind and made such a coil ... because the solution was on the table and any detector manufacturer could do it ... everyone had a chance to do it ..

I agree with the fact that in the technology of detectors and coils, it is possible ... you just don't have to keep things that have been used for years, but you still need to think about how things can be improved.

my favorite expression for this is ... that you can't break the physical laws of detection ... but you can still bend these rules a lot ... and strongly tilt in favor of better detection properties .....

At a minimum, Minelab must be recognized .... that such a coil solution .. / turning about 50% of its winding /. Will provide all the resistance of such a coil to mineralization and conductivity of the terrain, which practically means that in such terrain you will be able to work on higher detector settings as it would be when using a coil of the classic type ...

It is possible that this new coil solution may also be reflected in the new Minelab coils for their PI detectors ...