Билл Гейтс и вирпилы.

[Perf]

Still, whatever the legal merits, analysts agree: the complaint's symbolic power is great. "I'm not a big fan of guns, but that said, if the creators of this intellectual property have rights to enforce, I really do hope they can get them enforced in every country," Eric Schwartz, a vice president of the International Intellectual Property Alliance, said in a telephone interview. "And I hope that the United States government would comply and set a good example."


The alliance represents American companies with products protected by copyright laws.

The complaint also faces the unrelenting realities of the market. After decades in production in plants in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe, the automatic Kalashnikov has spread far beyond Izhevsk's reach.

Analysts estimate that 70 million to 105 million of the weapons have been made.

It has been used not only by more than 55 state armies, but also by the Viet Cong, militias in Beirut, Palestinian insurgents in Gaza City, guerrillas in Iraq and child soldiers in Asian and African states. A Kalashnikov is on the seal of Hezbollah and the flag of Mozambique. It features prominently in the symbolism of jihad.

Even the United States long ago entered in the Kalashnikov business, in the 1980's, when it surreptitiously bought Chinese and Egyptian Kalashnikovs for Islamic guerrillas battling the Red Army in Afghanistan.

American purchases of Kalashnikovs have continued intermittently since then. A few years ago, according to officials at the State Department and the Pentagon, Washington purchased Kalashnikovs for a Nigerian peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone.

With so many of the weapons in circulation, one analyst said Russia's complaint could prove to be an almost impossible fight.

Rosoboronexport's position is like "the Chinese saying they have a royalty right on every firearm, because that's where it all started with the invention of gunpowder 700 years ago," said Dr. Aaron Karp, a professor at Old Dominion University in Virginia who specializes in weapon proliferation issues.

Mr. Kalashnikov, who said the Russian versions of his rifle are superior, and who expressed deep fondness to Russian workers who have long made them, recognized the difficulties in the state agency's complaint.

He remembered that years ago President Boris N. Yeltsin vowed to defend the weapon from market infringement, to no avail. "President Yeltsin said he would do everything," Mr. Kalashnikov said. "But it's not so easy."