By Matthias Inverardi and Alexander Hübner
DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - Two German companies who between them build the Leopard 2, one of the world's most advanced battle tanks, have become embroiled in a legal spat over its intellectual property rights even as they ride a defence boom due to the war in Ukraine.
Rheinmetall AG, which was thrust into the spotlight last year as Germany ramped up its defence spending, is being taken to court by its peer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, with a hearing due at a Munich court on May 2.
Bowing to pressure from allies, Germany's government this year agreed to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, one of the big ticket items sought by Kyiv as it gears up to mount a counteroffensive against Russian forces.
Duesseldorf-based Rheinmetall makes the cannon of the Leopard 2 while the Munich-based KMW makes its chassis.
But KMW has objected to statements made by Rheinmetall's Chief Executive Armin Papperger in a newspaper interview with the Neue Zuercher Zeitung in March, in which he was quoted as saying that Rheinmetall owned the rights to the Leopard 2A4 model.
A district court in Munich in a statement on Tuesday said KMW was seeking legal protection to prevent Rheinmetall from making statements it saw as "untrue, misleading factual assertions that violate its rights".
KMW and Rheinmetall declined comment.
It was not immediately clear what impact, if any, the dispute may have on cooperation between the two companies, who last week jointly announced an order from the German army to upgrade 143 Puma fighting vehicles. The order is valued at around 770 million euros ($845 million).
Higher defence spending pushed Rheinmetall to record earnings last year and saw the company enter Germany's DAX blue-chip index.
($1 = 0.9106 euros)