IAt the hour of triumph, David spoke again to Goliath’s conscience. “Gianni Infantino, now ensure justice, and I will be the first to thank you for it,” Heine Allemagne appealed to the almighty Fifa boss. The Brazilian self-made manufacturer just got right in front of the local judiciary in the dispute against the world association over the patent millions for the free-kick spray, which has long been popular in football.
On October 27, the 14th civil division of the regional court in Rio de Janeiro made the 50-year-old, whose father was named after the German poet Heinrich Heine and the French title of the verse epic “Germany. A winter fairy tale ”was inspired to become a millionaire, so to speak. For the “use of the free kick spray cans on national territory, counting from May 23, 2012,” FIFA, which took on the invention on that date, now has to pay compensation.
“Fifa has been playing for time since the beginning and wants to win that way,” said Heine’s lawyer Cristiano Zanin, who now expects the world association to appeal to the Supreme Court to revise the case after the evidence has been taken. If Infantino doesn’t give in beforehand. The lawyer has an English version of the official set of rules from 2016 in hand, where the spray is officially mentioned as an aid. Surprisingly, there is no longer a word about it today, although the IFAB’s rulers determine everything down to the smallest detail. “It’s as if the Vatican would change the Bible,” Heine exclaimed.
The man from the town of Ituiutaba, who came up with the idea of keeping the free-kick wall at a distance with self-dissolving foam in the 1999 classic between Brazil and Argentina, has been too happy too often. And that’s why a letter was immediately sent to the Fifa ethics committee to reopen the case there.
This initiated an investigation in 2019 under the number RE 19-00114, but abruptly declared the case closed in July 2020 after the first instance of the Brazilian judiciary did not see piracy for a product that “did not require a high level of complexity”. Amazingly premature, especially since Infantino listened to “David” when he visited the U17 World Cup in Brazil in 2019.
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“I invented the spray, I introduced it to the world of football,” Heine clarified in an interview with the Sports Information Service (SID). He had tested the foam mixture in the laboratory, opened doors at associations, met all the requirements for a patent application in 2009, traveled to Zurich several times until Fifa carried out the first tests at the Club World Cup in 2013 with the victorious Bavarians from Munich have.
“Fifa has already lost”
An offer came in January 2014 for a ridiculous 500,000 US dollars for Heine. But the World Cup at the Sugar Loaf Mountain was just around the corner, and Fifa really wanted the spray, and agreed with the Brazilian and Argentine Pablo Silva, who also demanded inventor rights, that the duo would make the referees familiar with the tool in a course. And then there is $ 40 million, a promise that has not been put into writing.
The product name Spuni, derived from the expression “espuma para punicao” (punishment spray), was masked off without agreement at the time. After that, Fifa even put out a tender for interested manufacturers, according to Zanin, in order to get the marketing rights, although Heine had patents laid down in 43 other countries, including almost all of Europe, including Germany. A clear case of piracy for the plaintiffs. “Fifa has already lost,” assured Heine. And if millions really flow in Brazil, legal recourse will open in other countries. Perhaps Infantino should give in before David finally brings Goliath to his knees.
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