The German Ministry of Defence has published the process followed in this assault rifle competition.

According to press reports published in Germany today, the Haenel offer costs 152 million Euros, compared to 179 millions offered by HK.

Or perhaps not?   https://www.overtdefense.com/2020/10/09/breaking-bundeswehr-withdraw-order-for-haenel-mk556/

A patent blitzkrieg is being developed right now.

Over a basic 60 years old design. Even SIG could participate in it ROFL

It seems the case is not as clear cut as it seemed, I am sure H&K put all its lobying might behind this but,in addtion to the patent stuff ,some of the results of the testing just don't add up, like Haenel having 7% better penetration than HK using the same barrel length and ammo.?

What was officialy withdrawn, is the formal letter informing Haenel about the intention to accept its offer. 

The declared reason for this is information in the protest by Heckler & Koch which indicates to BAAIN plausible reason to suspect that the Haenel offer could contain a patent infringement. 

Unofficially it is reported that the infringed patent in question is held by Magpul and Haenel's magazine contractor is the culprit.

I cannot resist to remind readers that G3 procurement was also accompanied by patent problems, in that case Mauser, Rheinmetall (licensed by Grossfuss) and Heckler & Koch. That problem was solved by a Gentlemens Agreement, basically by assigning compensation contracts to Rheinmetall and Mauser. Which was quite easy in a fast growing Bundeswehr. Today, lack of gentlemen both, in industry (greed out of bounds) and in administration (avoid taking responsibility at all cost) makes a similar solution unthinkable.   

How do you feel after foreseeing what was going to happen with minutiae patent agression?

poliorcetes said:

Over a basic 60 years old design. Even SIG could participate in it ROFL

In case anyone needs more evidence of how intellectually destitute the arms industries of France, UK, Germany and the US are. Poland and Austria, Italy and the Czechs though. . .  

Red7272 said:

In case anyone needs more evidence of how intellectually destitute the arms industries of France, UK, Germany and the US are.

The small-arms industries of France and the UK are not "intellectually destitute" - they are non-existent.

Honestly of all the patent crossbreeding  in H&K ,SIG and Hanel i did not expect an Oberland arms magazine patent 'infringment' to be the one they trip on.

I guess its time ,as initialy Magpul did not jump on the OA for their OA  G-MAG that syles itself like Pmag knockoff ,considering this infringment is well over decade old i do wonder if Magpul can realy get much done against OA

''I asked Magpul if they plan on taking legal action. They responded by saying that they have no licensing agreement with OA, but that they said they don’t plan on taking legal action against them. My guess is that the court costs of fighting a legal battle overseas would be expensive. I have no doubt that if Oberland Arms ever establishes a legal presence in the USA, Magpul would be all over them in an instant!''

Cerberus GMBH making the G-mag is part of Oberland Arms group

G-MAG vs PMAG

Following the German news, this resulted in considerable political fallout, its a second or third acquisition project in a row that blew up in smoke (F 18E Superhornet buy for nuclear delivery,new heavy lift cargo helicopter and now the rifle that even tough it peanuts in terms of funds is considered the prestige project in BW) all projects seem to have plenty of wishful thinking in the demands military put forward resulting in either no product meeting demands or goldplated prices or both.