Actually, Rheinmetall and the Munich tank manufacturer KMW cooperate on many projects.
But with the Leopard 2, Rheinmetall went too far - much to the annoyance of KMW.
Munich - The armaments companies Krauss Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and Rheinmetall have settled their legal dispute over the copyrights to the "Leopard 2" tank.
The Munich I Regional Court canceled the oral hearing planned for the morning at short notice on Tuesday.
"The parties have compared," it said in the short message.
The court did not provide any information on the content of the agreement.
The Munich company KMW was the plaintiff against Rheinmetall in the case.
In return for withdrawing the lawsuit, KMW apparently demanded clarification from Rheinmetall.
The Düsseldorf-based Dax group declared on Tuesday morning that it would not claim any “exclusive rights” to the tank.
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The Leopard 2A4: Shortly before a court case, KMW and Rheinmetall agree on the "copyright" of the coveted tank.
© Lech Muszynski/dpa
Corrected: The Leopard 2 was developed by KMW
The "Leopard 2" is a development by KMW.
Among other things, Rheinmetall is contributing the cannon and the fire control system.
In an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung,
Rheinmetall boss Armin Papperger
claimed intellectual property rights to the tank for his group: "Rheinmetall owns the rights up to the Leopard 2A4."
KMW then filed an action for an injunction against Rheinmetall because of "untrue allegations of fact".
Rheinmetall also attributes the development of the tank to KMW on its own website: "The Leopard 2 from Krauss-Maffei Wegmann is the most powerful main battle tank in the world and at the same time the weapon system with the widest international distribution," it says there;
it is also expressly stated that the “Leopard” is a KMW brand.
Competitors and partners: KMW and Rheinmetall settle legal dispute
In the case of out-of-court settlements, the companies in dispute very often agree on mutual silence, which is different in this case.
Rheinmetall published a statement that KMW was involved in bringing about:
"In this respect, we clarify the following in coordination with KMW: Neither Mr. Papperger nor Rheinmetall AG wanted or want to express with the reprimanded statements that Rheinmetall AG has exclusive rights to the Leopard 2A4 main battle tank.
On the basis of this clarification, the process could be ended by mutual agreement.
KraussMaffei Wegmann and Rheinmetall are partners on the one hand and competitors on the other: Rheinmetall presented the new Panther KF51 tank developed under its own leadership last year.
The development of the main battle tank was sharply criticized by KMW boss Ralf Ketzel.
In the development of tanks, it has always been common for essential parts to come from suppliers, as was the case with the "Leopard 2", which has been in production since the late 1970s.
(dpa/row)
List of rubrics: © Lech Muszynski/dpa
