Brazilian justice ruling could establish jurisprudence, once Heine Allemagne’s company has registered the spray patent in 43 other countries.
A Brazilian court ordered FIFA to compensate Heine Allemagne, inventor of the spray used by referees to mark the faults and the distance from the barrier, for violating copyright and acting in bad faith, his lawyers reported Thursday.
A Appeals court of Rio de Janeiro accepted the appeal presented by Improvisation, a company owned by Allemagne, and determined that the International Association Football Federation (FIFA) repair “damage caused by unauthorized use of the spray in competitions.”
The value of the compensation will be defined in a next stage of process, which has been dragging on since 2017 in the Brazilian JusticeAllemagne’s attorneys noted in a note that demand the payment of at least 50 million reais (9.1 million dollars) for your client.
The victory in the Brazilian Justice could establish jurisprudence, once the signing of Allemagne has the spray patent registered in 43 other countries.
The Rio court considered in its sentence, handed down on Wednesday, that FIFA acted in bad faith during the negotiations it had with the Brazilian inventor for the use of the spray.
According to the complaint, the governing body of world football “abused the good will” of Allemagne, “Using the spray for free and taking advantage of the know-how” of his company for “the implementation of the product, while hiding the brand of the same.”
According to his lawyers, Allemagne advised FIFA to adopt the use of foam spray, today become an essential element for the field referee and that has made it possible to energize the rhythm of the matches.
Nevertheless, the inventor claims that he was “never” “adequately” recognized or rewarded therefore, what in his opinion “violates a fundamental guarantee” and constitutes an “illegal practice in Brazil and in various jurisdictions.”
Allemagne’s defense recalled that the The FIFA Ethics Committee, based in Geneva, Switzerland, opened an official investigation into the case in 2020 before possible “deviations of conduct and legal”, but this was “summarily” filed after obtaining a victory in the first instance in Brazil, a decision now reversed.
“The reopening of the investigation will be one of the international fronts that will be analyzed by the inventor’s lawyers ”, they underlined in the note. (D)
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