GSG & ATI Sue H&K. Claim H&K Does Not Own MP5 Design

GSG-5 as imported by ATI before H&K sued them and GSG.

In 2009 Heckler & Koch (USA) sued German Sport Guns GmbH (GSG), who manufactured the GSG GSG-5 .22 rifle, and American Tactical Imports (ATI) who imported the GSG-5 into the USA. They successfully argued that the GSG-5 infringed upon their design patents for the H&K MP5. They took court action soon after licensing the design to Umarex who were designing a competing MP5-patterned .22 rifle. GSG paid a settlement of $300,000 and agreed to modify the design of the GSG-5 so it looked less like an MP5.

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But, things just got interesting! GSG and ATI are now suing Heckler & Koch GmbH (Germany) and Heckler & Koch (USA) for $16.5 million in punitive damages. GSG claims they now have proof that H&K did not own the rights to the MP5 design when they sued GSG and “forced GSG into a settlement”.

GSG-522P imported by ATI after the settlement with H&K. Note the design changes to the top photo of the pre-settlementGSG-5P.

The trial is scheduled for early 2015. As soon as we know more about this court case, we will let you know.