The company that develops video games reported that the new MP-155 Ultima rifle KB Kalashnikov is an exact copy of the virtual futuristic rifle Mastodont.
According to representatives of the company Ward B in 2020, they were contacted by a representative of the Kalashnikov concern, a certain Maxim Kuzin. Maxim Kuzin said that the engineers of the Kalashnikov concern liked the design of the futuristic rifle that was invented in their company.
Maxim Kuzin, on behalf of the Kalashnikov concern, said that they are ready to use the concept of the Mastodont rifle as an industrial design of a real-life shotgun rifle.
Lengthy negotiations followed, in which the representative of the Kalashnikov concern in words and by email convinced Ward B of its readiness to cooperate and even promised to send 3 copies of a real rifle designed by Ward B to the company’s address.
However, the negotiations suddenly stopped.
Soon someone from Ward B noticed that the Kalashnikov concern introduced a new semi-automatic rifle of 12 caliber MP-155 Ultima completely repeating the design of the futuristic rifle “Mastodont” developed by the designers of the company Ward B.
And although Ward B tried several times to contact Maxim Kuzin, it became clear that the contract for the use of the design developed by Ward B would not be signed.
However, Maxim Kuzin presents a slightly different point of view.
After Maxim Kuzin sent the necessary papers to Ward B, the Kalashnikov concern conducted its independent investigation:
The company does [Ward B] not have enough of its own funds to complete the development [game ‘Oceaniс’], there are no investors, the release date is unknown, and it was too risky to cooperate with the company.
Another reason for the refusal to cooperate was the fact that Ward B was not paid to the conceptual designer of the Mastodont rifle, which made it impossible to negotiate the licensing of weapons, since there was no clear understanding of who owned the copyright.
After that, according to the Kalashnikov concern, the development of the design of the MP-155 Ultima rifle was “started from scratch” by the Russian designer.
Comparison of MP 155 Ultima and Mastodont
In September 2020, Ward B sent several appeals to the Kalashnikov concern, but the response was received only after Ward B published a claim justified by the DMCA, which, of course, leads to legal proceedings.
In addition, Maxim Kuzin tried to buy the copyright directly from the designer of the Mastodont rifle.
Since the Kalashnikov concern is outside the jurisdiction of the United States, and the trial should take place in Russia, Ward B decided to abandon the protection of its copyrights, but to devote this situation to the press as widely as possible.
The situation is as follows. Cousin proposed several design options for the MP-155 Ultima rifle, one of which was the ‘Mastodont’ concept. And it was this design that most impressed the management of the Kalashnikov concern.
However, without receiving clarity and without continuing negotiations with Ward B, a copy of Mastodont was developed under his leadership, but already under the Kalashnikov brand.
As a result, a situation arose when the Kalashnikov concern simply stole the design of a new rifle from a small computer company.
