TSAMTO, April 26. According to German media, Krauss Maffei Wegmann (KMW) has sued Rheinmetall over a copyright dispute over the Leopard tank.
The Munich-based company wants to ban Rheinmetall from claiming that it owns the rights to Leopard up to and including version 2A4. The Munich District Court intends to consider the case in an open format on May 2. The Neue Zurcher Zeitung newspaper was the first to report on the trial.
Formally, the court did not name the companies involved in the dispute, but there is no doubt who they are. The reason for the proceedings was a March interview with Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger, who stated that the company owns the rights to the Leopard up to version 2A4 and had previously assembled a thousand tanks using its intellectual property. KMW refutes these statements as "false, misleading and violating her rights." The Company believes that Leopard-2 is its product and, therefore, its intellectual property.
KMW and Rheinmetall are partners in the production of MBT on the one hand and competitors on the other: the Leopard-2 was developed by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, it assembles the hull and chassis for the tank, and Rheinmetall supplies the turret, cannon, ammunition, fire control system and aiming system for the MBT.
A few years ago Rheinmetall attempted to absorb Krauss-Maffei Wegmann. According to the media, this attempt failed, including because the heads of the companies, Armin Papperger and Frank Haun, dislike each other. Although Frank Haun denies personal enmity, it is noticeable that relations between the two companies continue to "cool down". The conflict in Ukraine also affected the relationship of producers. The leadership of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann was annoyed when A. Papenger proposed to the German government to supply Leopard-2 tanks to the APU, forming the impression that Rheinmetall is the "home of the Leopard".
At the disposal of the Neue Zurcher Zeitung there is a document from 1995, which may indicate who owns the rights to the Leopard-2. It is a response to a request from Spain, which at that time planned to purchase tanks in Germany. The response of the German Federal Department of Defense Technology and Procurement BWB (Bundesamt fur Wehrtechnik und Beschaffung) states that the intellectual property of individual parts of the development belongs to the German companies participating in the project. First of all, this applies to the hull and turret (Krauss-Maffei Wegmann), guns (Rheinmetall), gearbox (Renk), engine (MTU) and tracks (Diehl). However, as reported by BWB, Krauss-Maffei owns intellectual property for the entire system as a whole, bears overall responsibility and monitors that the rights of third parties are not violated. Thus, Rheinmetall is only a supplier of equipment for MBT. Therefore, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann believes that due to Rheinmetall's actions, its reputation has been called into question.
Last year Rheinmetall presented its own project of the Panther main battle tank. At the same time, in an interview with NZZ A.Papperger had to admit that this OBT preserves the body of the Leopard-2 tank.
Despite the fact that, at first glance, the proceedings on intellectual property rights during the period of aggravation of the military-political situation in the region seem strange, with a closer look at the situation, everything becomes clear. The conflict in Ukraine has led to a sharp increase in demand for the supply of tanks, howitzers, combat vehicles and ammunition in all Western countries. Thus, everything is explained by the elementary struggle for new orders.
According to German observers, the dispute over the Leopard may affect other projects jointly implemented by Rheinmetall and KMW. In particular, the companies jointly produce the infantry fighting vehicle "Puma". They also developed the Boxer armored fighting vehicle together.
