Dispute with competitor Haenel: weapons manufacturer Heckler & Koch wins stage

The weapons manufacturers Heckler & Koch (HK) and CG Haenel are spider enemies.

The two companies have been trying hard for years because they are vying for a major order from the Bundeswehr for 120,000 assault rifles.

It is about the invitation to tender for the successor model of the G36.

The previous standard rifle has so far been supplied by HK based in Oberndorf.

The gunsmiths from the Black Forest have now won a stage win in a patent dispute over another weapon from Haenel, based in Suhl, before the Düsseldorf Regional Court.

A civil chamber ruled that the company had infringed a HK patent on a model rifle named CR223. Among other things, it affects tiny openings in the rifle that are designed to allow water to drain off quickly and to be ready to fire when soldiers wade through a river or land on the seashore. The technical jargon speaks of the "over the beach" function.

The court regards the claims for omission, recall and destruction as well founded.

The judgment relates exclusively to the semi-automatic version of the rifle and not to the fully automatic that Haenel wants to sell to the German armed forces.

A HK spokesman said they would not comment until the proceedings were final.

It is expected that competitor Haenel will call the next instance and take action before the competent higher regional court.

Have the patent declared null and void

The decision that has now been made is only a side strand in the dispute between the two competitors. The CR223 is used by the police in Saxony. Haenel wants to have the HK patent in question declared null and void before the Federal Patent Court in Munich. If it were deleted from the patent register, there could be no patent infringement either, according to the logic of the Suhlers, who so far played a minor role in the industry. The rifle manufacturer from the Thuringian Forest belongs to the hunting weapons manufacturer Merkel, which in turn is part of the state armaments company Caracal from Abu Dhabi.

Merkel and Haenel work closely together and have a total of around 130 employees. According to management estimates, your turnover this year will be around 21 million euros, an increase of around 20 percent. H&K has a good 1000 employees. Assault rifles and machine guns, grenade launchers and pistols are manufactured. According to the company, sales in 2020 were 275 million euros, an increase of 15 percent. HK has been supplying the Bundeswehr with assault rifles and other weapons for more than six decades.

Haenel had admitted to having used the disputed holes in the semi-automatic mode until 2018 - without having known about the patent. When it became known, a component with only one hole was used, company boss Olaf Sauer said after a report by the dpa news agency in October. The fully automatic variant of the assault rifle, which Haenel submitted to the Bundeswehr award procedure, never had three holes.

The major order from the Bundeswehr was supposed to be finally awarded a long time ago, but there were delays and twists and turns.

Last autumn, the Bundeswehr Procurement Office surprisingly decided not to purchase assault rifles from HK for the first time in around 60 years, but from Haenel.

HK appealed.

The U-turn followed in March: The Federal Ministry of Defense announced that Haenel was excluded from the proceedings because of patent infringements.

It is intended to award the contract to Heckler & Koch.

Secret procurement procedures

Against this Haenel took legal action, but failed before the procurement chamber of the Federal Cartel Office. The decision has since been published: It gives a remarkable insight into the otherwise secretive world of award procedures. As can be read in the decision, the procurement office contacted the two bidders at a time when changes to their offers were no longer possible according to procurement law. In the case of Haenel, the officials asked whether the price information for a certain accessory was meant per part or per pack of three.

In the published decision, the name of the accessory is omitted.

HK stuck to the offer he had made - knowing that changes would no longer be valid anyway.

Haenel, in turn, changed its offer and price.

The “concretization” of the price meant that Haenel “submitted a more economical offer”, according to the decision.

"Here the measure inadmissibly led to a change in the ranking order," complain the judges.

The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court has to decide how the award of the assault rifle contract will proceed.

A negotiation is planned for the beginning of March 2022, according to an OLG spokeswoman.