The Thuringian arms manufacturer Haenel GmbH has suffered another defeat in the legal dispute with its competitor Heckler & Koch (HK), which has been going on for years. The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court ruled on Friday that the “Haenel CR 223” rifle infringes Heckler & Koch’s patent rights and is therefore currently not allowed to be manufactured or sold in Germany. The court thus confirmed a decision by the Düsseldorf Regional Court from November 2021, against which Haenel had appealed.
The presiding judge of the 15th civil senate, Ulrike Voß, emphasized that due to the patent infringement found, Haenel GmbH was obliged to destroy all the rifles still in its possession, to ask its commercial customers to return rifles that had already been delivered in exchange for compensation, and to provide the plaintiff with information about to grant the profit made from the previous sale of the guns. Based on this information, Heckler & Koch can then assert claims for damages against the defendant.