I Smell a Lawsuit: ATA Arms Neo Inertia Shotguns
Recently a few firms, most notably Browning, have been launching shotguns with inertia operated actions. Benelli (now owned by Beretta) held a monopoly on the inertia technology until its patent expired a few year ago.
A Turkish company called ATA Arms have produced an inertia shotgun that looks almost identical to the Beretta Xplor UNICO A400 (a piston operated shotgun). The receiver is the same color, has the same wavy engraved lines and has the company name written in almost the same place.
ATA Arms Neo Inertia Shotguns
Beretta Xplor UNICO A400 Shotgun
Beretta Xplor UNICO A400 Shotgun Close Up
ATA is obviously trying to make their shotgun look like the Beretta Xplor. I would be very surprised if Beretta does not take out a lawsuit against them, or at least prevent this model from being imported into Europe and the United States.
When was the technology patented? The patent may have expired.
If you are talking just about looks… there are differences. Worst case the gun gets a minor makeover.
Go for the face.
Hey Steve, how’s your Spam policy?
I assume if they’ll sue, they try to force a productionstop through the European Trade Commissioner.. Or they’ll take it up directly in a Turkish court.
I don’t think an import-ban will do very much in Europe, seeing the Freedom of movement of goods..
On the other hand, never heard Springfield complaining they don’t sell M14′s anymore in Europe ever since everyone and their grandmothers are buying the Norinco versions.
Wich would make it all the more surprising if Beretta would file a lawsuit in the first place.
Sorry, but I have to disagree. Most shotguns look similar to both of those guns, just like every striker fired pistol looks almost identical.
I honestly don’t see enough similarity between the two for Beretta to sue or even bring it up. The two weapon systems have similar styling but are both very distinctive in which company they come from.
Ata is the pre-owner of the factory which Beretta bought and named
“Stoeger” in Türkiye. Therefore, two owners should be familiar with
each other and, most probably, Beretta is aware of this production.
However, Ata owners do not care much about patent rights especially
in the past as imitating Benelli’s for a few years eventually attracting
Beretta’s attention as resulting their factory’s sold out.
Their qualities are very good for the price and they export shotguns
all over the world, all being clones of Beretta products.
I suspect ATA knew where to draw the line: simply using an inertia rather than a gas system is probably enough, but they might easily have taken the look-alike approach further and fitted a faux-walnut stock yet went for a plain synthetic one instead.
Over here both H&K and Glock successfully sued companies importing .22 rimfire (blowback operated) guns that looked similar to their guns. For a tradedress lawsuit, I don’t think inner workings matter at all.
The Apple vs. Samsung lawsuit happening right now over the iPad design is another example.