Patents in the world cup football?

It’s all kicking off

No longer a bunch of plastic shapes stitched and glued together this year’s FIFA World Cup football is a technological powerhouse as well

Using technology developed by German company Kinexon the ball can now accurately measure that Luis Chavez struck the ball at 121.69 kmh to score against Saudi Arabia.

It also enables clarity for the referee as to whether the ball was touched at all by the player accused of a bad tackle or whether it was actually hand ball, or whether it did actually touch Ronaldo’s brow before it went in the goal! (No it did not btw).

In time it should make for  a richer experience for fans too : tracking data such as the ball’s rotation rate, shot speed, the tightest ball control, dribbling- and passing speed and accuracy, as well as successful tackles in real-time.

We are just at the beginning of this technological breakthrough in the world’s favourite sport and we will see a lot more to come.

Anyway Kinexon has the edge at the moment with a developing arsenal of trade secrets and patents as part of their business intellectual property strategy.

What tech innovations are there in your favourite sport ?