Because of a dispute over the copyrights to the Leopard tank, the armaments company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann is taking the tank manufacturer Rheinmetall to court. The Munich-based company wants to prohibit Rheinmetall from claiming that the rights to the Leopard up to and including version 2A4 are held by Rheinmetall. On May 2, the Regional Court of Munich I wants to hear the case, as a court spokeswoman said on Tuesday. First, the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" had reported.

The court did not name the names of the disputed companies, but there is no doubt who the parties are: Rheinmetall boss Armin Papperger had claimed the rights for Rheinmetall in an interview with the "NZZ": "We have built a thousand Leopard 2A4s, based on our own intellectual property." According to the court, KMW objects to these statements as "untrue, misleading and infringing factual allegations".

KMW and Rheinmetall are partners on the one hand and competitors on the other: The "Leopard 2" was developed by Krauss-Maffei, but Rheinmetall is contributing the cannon, ammunition, fire control system and command system, according to the company.

On the Rheinmetall company website, the Düsseldorf-based company also credits the development of the KMW tank, regardless of the Papperger interview: "The Leopard 2 from Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) is the most powerful main battle tank in the world and at the same time the weapon system with the greatest international distribution," it says.