KMW vs. RHEINMETALL: Who owns the Leopard?

In the case of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co. KG (KMW) against Rheinmetall AG and Armin Papperger before the Regional Court Munich I, the question was whether certain statements by Papperger in an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on 15.3.2023 regarding the possible use of a Leopard 2A4 chassis for the armored fighting vehicle Panther KF51 ("The rights up to the Leopard 2A4 are held by Rheinmetall" and "We have built one thousand Leopard 2A4, based on our own intellectual property") should be understood as him asserting exclusive rights to the Leopard 2A4 combat tank in favor of Rheinmetall. This was argued by KMW.

Rheinmetall and Armin Papperger saw it differently. The clarification of questions regarding "copyrights on the Leopard" or the question of whether a party holds exclusive or sole rights to the Leopard 2A4 chassis were not the subject of the proceedings. The parties are aware that especially in the current situation (each party individually and within the framework of their existing cooperations, also together) they must make an important contribution to the security of our country and our allies. Therefore, the parties have made efforts to resolve the dispute as quickly as possible in order to return to their daily business.

Therefore, Rheinmetall, in coordination with KMW, makes the following clarifying statement:
Neither Mr. Armin Papperger nor Rheinmetall AG intended or intend to imply with the criticized statements that Rheinmetall AG holds exclusive rights to the Leopard 2A4 combat tank.

Based on this clarification, the process could be terminated amicably. Well, thank goodness...

RHEINMETALL on the internet

KMW on the internet