Arsenal Bulgaria
v.
CNC Warrior USA

This article is intended to explain some recent changes to our product line.

In particular, we no longer produce or sell items that bear strong resemblance to those originally designed by the Bulgarian arsenal.

For decades, we have manufactured various muzzle devices that were designed by the military arsenals of USA, Russia, Israel, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, and others. Most of these were made in response to customer requests (many times to comply with US922r component count restrictions). In addition, we almost always adapted the designs to be used on multiple guns for which they were not originally designed. Also, many of the devices were customized in certain lengths that would help our customers meet barrel length restrictions. On quite a few occasions, CNC Warrior has been embraced and contracted to produce these devices for the US market by the authorized US dealers that represent those foreign arsenals.

This has always been a small portion of our overall business and, over the last 10 years, has become quite negligible. But we kept up inventory as best we could for these specialty items because they were still requested from time to time and desired for certain gun builds. Until now, none of the arsenals bothered to squelch off this little cottage industry and most of these military designs have been replicated countless times by producers all over the world. Slant brakes, Ak74 brakes, A1/A2 birdcages, Type 84 flash hiders, etc. made by various manufacturers have always been easily attainable at any local gun show.

But now, Arsenal Bulgaria has made it crystal clear that they intend to sue CNC Warrior if we produce or sell anything that resembles any of their legacy products. They have no utility patent, no design patent, no registered copyright or trademark for these particular items that would validate their threats. But in these days of rampant lawfare, does that really matter? Also, as stated above, dropping these products that they object to will have little financial effect on our company. Unfortunately, those special adaptations of the muzzle device products will probably no longer be available anywhere since it is unlikely to make business sense for Arsenal to serve such slim markets.

But that is their prerogative, so they can do as they wish. CNC Warrior acknowledges that those designs are considered by Arsenal Bulgaria to be perpetual, valuable intellectual property, and we will honor their desire to protect them as such.

Any items that we choose to continue making will be redesigned. Instead of discontinuing the 4pc brakes, they have been substantially redesigned to easily distinguish from Arsenal's legacy product. Substantial cosmetic changes and subtle functional improvements have been implemented while keeping our signature nickle plated conical insert and overall part compatibility. The various new models are releasing over the next coming weeks. We ask customers to not request for us to supply the "old" design because we will not. We may or may not change the name since we coined this incredibly generic name decades ago when it was otherwise generally known in the US as the "hobo" brake or "beer can" brake.

I have always personally been a huge fan of Arsenal AKs. Every customer who has called in and asked questions regarding their Arsenal weapons over the years have heard nothing but praise from CNC Warrior employees about their weapon choice. We're still fans of their products but in consideration of the company's litigious and pretentious nature, we will likely be much less enthusiastically supportive going forward.

Denny Butts
Member manager
CNC Warrior LLC