February 25 2011 is less than 60 days away... What about the arrows?

[Idontgo55]

But knowing mike , he will have it for another 20 years muahhahhha!

Wouldn't bother me any. I'm honestly hoping that a new V1 won't come out. If it does, I'm afraid that the company may eventually stop tuning up/troubleshooting the V1 units that are produced today. 400 bucks is a lot of damn money to me, and I don't want to be forced to spend another several hundred dollars on something else when I am perfectly happy with what I have.

Nobody has a gun pointed at your head makin you buy it!!! so your not forced to do anything Plus v1 used will still bring a good price if you ever want to step to a newer one if they come out with one

[ben721364]

Presumably you believe that other manufacturers/marketers will copy Valentine's product [the guts of it at least] as soon as the patent expires? This is the sincerest form of flatery, is it not? Why would knockoffs turn the original into a collectors' item?

In 53 days from the time of this post, Mike V's patent on his dual-antennae system for the arrows will expire. As a proud V1 owner, I can only imagine the V1 becoming a product that becomes a collectors item once other companies can pick up the arrows concept.

Any thoughts on this? I know there's treads already posted about this, but it's 2011 now, and there's little time left. What do you think will happen once the patents expire in 53 days? Share your thoughts.

I honestly have no idea what to think. I just bought a concealed display today. I hope the company stays around for at least another couple years. I was only 18 when I invested in a V1 and had to save a good amount of money to get it. I would be disappointed if the V1 became a product of the past within the next 2-3 years.

In the event something does happen to VR, I'll probably just use my V1 until it dies and won't invest in another detector for a while. I highly praise the way Mike runs VR; it's small enough that it's almost personal when conducting business with them. I also respect that Mike is (from my experience) an honest businessman and won't rip you off. (example: I've seen upgrade notices for certain users where he will tell you that it's not a necessary upgrade to pay for unless you really want the feature. Other companies would market the crap out of it to get every dollar out of you.)

[ben721364]

Let's assume for the sake of discussion that the major competitors copy the V-1 locators immediately making their products equal at long last to the V-1. Will they then lower prices to make them equal in that regard? If so, will the manufacturers accept all the cost of lower prices or will they go to direct marketing and cut out their resellers?

I had no idea there patent was expiring. I would be sweating bullets if I was Mike V. If arrows end up on a 9500ix / Redline with no further updates such as GPS it is going to be hard to stay with the V1. I would think this will motivate him to update the current V1. We will have to wait and see I guess.

[Solidjake]

Patent 5206651 bogey counter, June 1992
Patent 5250951 bogey counter, November 1992
Patent 5300932 arrows, October 1991
Patent 5300932 bogey counter, July 1993
Patent 5146226 bogey counter, April 1991
Patent 5083129 dual antennas, February 1991
Patent 5852417 frequency detection, January 1991


edit: patents last 14-20 years

[DUI Elite]

Patent 5206651 bogey counter, June 1992
Patent 5250951 bogey counter, November 1992
Patent 5300932 arrows, October 1991
Patent 5300932 bogey counter, July 1993
Patent 5146226 bogey counter, April 1991
Patent 5083129 dual antennas, February 1991
Patent 5852417 frequency detection, January 1991


edit: patents last 14-20 years, so that means the earliest the patents for VR can expire is 2015

ummmm unless I read that wrong, you mean 2013 (for all the patents)?

[Solidjake]

I must be drunk, haha

yup yup, they expire this year for whatever was filed in 1991

[rocky2]

1991+20yrs= 2011

[Solidjake]

1991+20yrs= 2011

yea I said I must be drunk lol

[DUI Elite]

Patent 5206651 bogey counter, June 1992
Patent 5250951 bogey counter, November 1992
Patent 5300932 arrows, October 1991
Patent 5300932 bogey counter, July 1993
Patent 5146226 bogey counter, April 1991
Patent 5083129 dual antennas, February 1991
Patent 5852417 frequency detection, January 1991


edit: patents last 14-20 years

1991+20yrs= 2011

I was including ALL of the patents. All of them will have expired by 2013

[StlouisX50]

"Patent 5852417 frequency detection, January 2011"

I thought others could detected frequency too , otherwise they would not know if which band it was.