Question... Does Colt own the rights to the M4 and M16?

[ZeroCool]

So this discussion came up in another (non gun) forum that I frequent and honestly, I didnt know the answer. I know that FN makes military weapons now and that Bushmaster, RRA, Armalite, etc. make civilian versions.

Does Colt in anyway have property rights on these rifles? Lets say someone wanted to recreate the army's M16 and M4 and name them as such in another intellectual property (a videogame for instance). Would they need permission from Colt to do so?

Any and all answers appreciated.

 

[Old Fuff]

Does Colt in anyway have property rights on these rifles? Lets say someone wanted to recreate the army's M16 and M4 and name them as such in another intellectual property (a videogame for instance). Would they need permission from Colt to do so?

Colt owns certain trade marks and other intellectual property related to the M-16 line of rifles, and could, and has sued other firearms manufacturers that in their opinion violated those rights. Not sure they could do that to a video game publisher. Any patents related to the design have expired by now.

 

[Jeff White]

Colt owns the technical data package (the plans and blueprints so to speak) for the M16 and the M4. Under it's agreement with the Army, the Army may share the technical data package on the M16 with other manufacturers in order to meet it's needs. Under the same agreement, Colt is the sole source for the M4 and M4A1 (Colt sued the Army and proved that they put enough of their own time and money into the development of the M4 that it wasn't covered by the M16 technical data package) until 2013 IIRC. After that date, the Army can share the TDP withmother manufacturers but those manufacturers have to pay a royalty to Colt for every M4 or M4A1 they make. Some years after that, the M4 becomes like the M16 and the Army can share the TDP with other manufacturers without paying royalties.

Jeff

 

[MAKster]

M4 trademark

A few years ago, Colt sued Bushmaster claiming that Bushmaster violated their trademark on the "M4". The court ruled that M4 was a generic term and Colt did not have ownership of it. There is a summary of the court case on the Bushmaster website. I believe Colt does have a trademark on "AR-15" and "M16".

 

[Frog48]

I believe Colt holds the trademark to "AR-15" and "M-16". This is why other companies name their models with slight variations of those monikers... For example, Bushmaster calls their AR-15 clone the "XM-15", Armalite calls theirs "M-15", DPMS "Panther-16", etc.

 

[RNB65]

The US Patent Office has an online search function. A quick search of the trademark records found that --

"AR-15" is registered to Colt's Inc.

"M16" is registered to Colt Defense LLC.

"M4" is registered to the New Colt Holding Corporation.

 

[nemoaz]

Paying the money to try to trademark something isn't the same as actually having a defensible interest in said trademark. I could trademark "car" if I want, but I wouldn't likely have an actual ability to defend anyone else from using the term. There are some good primers on intellectual property law available if you search yahoo or whatever. I doubt anyone really wants to know more.

I have no doubt they can trademark AR15, or more correctly I think they bought the trademark rights, but I doubt they can defend M16 or M4 since those are numbers assigned by the military anymore than Beretta can claim M9 is their own trademark.

 

[ZeroCool]

Ok, so this is going to make me sound like a geek (and I am) but the reason I ask is because a recently released videogame "Rainbow Six: Vegas", a tactical first person shooter, does not include an M16/M4 variant. The game is a realistic type sim and all of the weapons are actually named (MP7A1 for example).

The rumor why it does not include the M16/M4 is that Colt and the developer could not come to an agreement (dont know specifics of the rumor). To me, it seemed like a BS rumor because I couldnt see how Colt could control something like that. But I guess if they wanted to use the military designation of the weapon, perhaps they need Colts permission???

Any further responses would be greatly appreciated.