Die "Ur-Shocker" war der erste E-Pneumatische Markierer, entwickelt von PneuVentures Inc & Dr. Ed Hensel (http://www.rit.edu/~w-me/people/faculty/hensel.htm)
Nahezu zeitgleich entwickelte WDP die erste Angel.
PVI entwickelte auch den bekannten Max-Flo Regulator.
Die PVI Shocker wurde exklusiv über Smart Parts verkauft.
Mitte 1997 trennten sich PVI & Smart Parts. PVI wollten eine verbesserte Version der Shocker rausbringen - Die "Warrior". der Name wurde dann aber zu "Cyber-900" geändert.
Ein sehr innovativer Markierer mit eigenem Chronie am Lauftip, der zur Einstellung des Markierers mit seiner Steuerung verbunden und über ein LCD Display einstellbar war. Die Cyber-900 war der erste Markierer mit einem Display und bot auch Features wie z.B. einen integrierten Game Timer.
Leider gab es davon nur um die 4 Prototypen und die Pleite von PVI verhinderte eine Produktion.
Smart Parts "gewann", kaufte die Konkursmasse samt Patenten auf und brachte 1998 die Shocker Sport auf den Markt, welche Anfang 2003 von der Shocker 03 aka "SFT" abgelöst wurde.
Allerdings besaß Smart Parts wieder erwarten nicht sämtliche Patente am Design, da PVI Dr. Hensel damals für seine Arbeit mit einem Teil der Rechte am Design selbst entlohnte. Er besaß quasi die "andere Hälfte".
Der Rest ist Geschichte. Die entsprechenden Patente liefen Anfang 2016 aus.
Siehe dazu auch:
viewtopic.php?t=85702
HP_Lovecraft @ mcarterbrown.com
To add to the story, he was the one who derailed the whole SP patent scam.
The short version was that SP hired PVI to design, and build an electronic gun. SP would be the distributor.
Neither party was happy with the arrangement, so PVI split to sell a newer version through other distributors. SP was not happy. So they told there dealer network they are not allowed to sell, or even talk with PVI. This was substantial because everyone sold SP barrels. They were huge back then.
And PVI went out of business. The bank took everything, and sold it cheap at auction. Including intellectual property rights (ie patents, designs, etc). Here SP bought up the patent, design, equipment, etc. They went on to produce the SHocker 4x4. But the Shocker 4x4 was a grand failure. By now, far, far better guns have hit the market. ie Angel, Bushmaster, Tribal, even Rainmaker.
So used the PVI patent and revised it to be far more general, and then hit the entire competition with patent lawsuits. As we all know, most companies folded. Either paying royalties, or stopping production. All except WDP. They had the money to properly fight SP.
And they discovered something interesting- PVI (and its bank) was only partial owner of the patent. PVI hired Professor Hensel to do the original design work. For payment, he was given part of the design rights. SP only bought the PVI "half". WDP quickly contacted Hensel, and managed to buy up the other half of the patent.
That crushed SP. From that point they were no longer able to sue over the electro patent. In court, the Judge even noted that SP claims were fairly suspecious to begin with as they were never involved in the research, design, and development stages.