USA – -(Ammoland.com)- Paul Leitner-Wise, principal of Leitner-Wise Manufacturing and the “LW” in the original LWRC, filed a lawsuit yesterday against Sig Sauer and LWRC International in Federal court in Maryland.
Anyone with a passing interest in the firearms industry is aware of the animosity between Leitner-Wise and LWRC, but adding Sig to the mix is a surprising twist.
Here is the complaint filed in MD.
Paul Andrew Leitner-Wise Sues LWRC & SIG Sauer Over Patent Infringement
More from Recoil Magazine:
“We find it deeply troubling that two major firearms manufacturers can predicate the entire success of their piston rifles upon a patent which was assigned without the inventors knowledge and to which they have never paid a penny in royalties,” said Matthew LeFande, the attorney representing Leitner-Wise.
According to patent law expert (and a RECOIL legalese interpreter), Malvern “Griff” Griffin, the patent at issue relates to a self-regulating short-stroke piston operating system for AR-15 type, self-loading rifles. The suit takes aim at LWRC and Sig Sauer products using Leitner-Wise’s self-regulating short-stroke piston system. The complaint specifically names over a dozen different rifle and pistol models, including the LWRC IC-A5 rifle and the SIG MCX rifle.
So will Leitner-Wise give all proceeds and awards from this to the families of Eugene Stoner and Mikael Kalashnikov? Hey Paul, you didn’t create anything new… all you did was refine an already existing technology and adapt it to an already existing weapon. If anyone should sue anybody, it is the family of Eugene Stoner suing YOU for patent infringement on the Stoner 63 design! I’m sick and tired of all these frivolous lawsuits in the gun industry… especially over things that were simply improvements on already-existing designs… like the McCormick rip-off of the Taiwanese design that others made even… Read more »