Status: 11/16/2021 2:51 p.m.
The weapons manufacturer Heckler & Koch achieved an important success in the dispute with its competitor Haenel. According to the Düsseldorf regional court, Haenel infringed patent rights when building an assault rifle.
In the dispute between the weapons manufacturers Heckler & Koch (HK) and CG Haenel, there is a verdict: The Düsseldorf district court ruled that the competitor Haenel had infringed a patent of HK when building an assault rifle. The court therefore considered the plaintiff’s claims for injunctive relief, recall and destruction of the weapons to be justified. Haenel, based in Suhl, Thuringia, does not have to pay compensation due to the statute of limitations.
The patent infringement involves tiny holes in a model assault rifle. The small holes are designed to ensure a quick drainage of water and thus enable faster readiness to fire. This ability, known as “over the beach”, enables weapons to be fired even if they were recently in the water. This is not possible with normal firearms and can even be life-threatening for the shooter.
Weapons companies compete for orders from the German armed forces
The judgment from Düsseldorf expressly refers only to the semi-automatic version of the rifle. Haenel wants to sell the fully automatic version to the German armed forces. Even before the hearing began, Haenel emphasized that the weapons planned for the Bundeswehr had never been drilled.
The said three holes were only used in the semi-automatic version of the assault rifle until 2018 without knowing about the alleged patent, company boss Olaf Sauer said a few months ago.
The two arms manufacturers from Thuringia and Baden-Württemberg have long been competing for a major order in which 120,000 assault rifles are to be delivered to the Bundeswehr. After Haenel was initially awarded the contract, the Federal Ministry of Defense decided in March for Heckler & Koch as the supplier. For the Suhl-based company Haenel, the order would have been a success, because the company has so far played a minor role in the industry.
The judgment is not yet final
At the same time, Haenel tries to have the HK patent declared null and void before the Munich Federal Patent Court. If the patent were to be deleted from the patent register, there could be no patent infringement either, according to the logic behind the separate proceedings.
In the Düsseldorf proceedings, it would have been possible for the responsible chamber to wait for the Munich decision, which is not expected until 2023. With today’s judgment, the Düsseldorf judges decided against delaying their own proceedings. However, the judgment is not yet final, Haenel could appeal to the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court.