STJ ends old dispute and condemnsa to compensate Brazilian inventor for use of spray

Ministers reject Fifa’s appeal in the final instance, and Heine Allemagne now awaits a millionaire compensation from a seven-year-long fight: ‘We made history’

A who has been fighting for years to be recognized as the inventor of the football wall spray defeated Fifa again on Tuesday, this time in the final instance, with no more possibility of appeals. The Superior Court of Justice ended an old dispute and condemned the entity to compensate Heine Allemagne and his company, Spuni Comércio de Produtos Esportivos, for bad faith and improper use of his invention.

The trial had to be rescheduled twice because two ministers requested to view the case. The Minister Humberto Martins, the rapporteur, denied Fifa’s appeal, which had already been convicted in the second instance, by the Collegiate of the 14th Civil Chamber of the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice.

Two ministers agreed with the rapporteur’s vote, and the other two disagreed only in part – they believe that the request for compensation is inappropriate because Fifa had hidden Spuni’s brand from the spray bottles used at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but they were outvoted.

In practice, there was a unanimous understanding that the football’s governing body acted in bad faith in the negotiations with the Brazilian by preventing him from negotiating the patent of his invention through false promises. Heine now awaits a millionaire compensation. His lawyers will wait for the publication of the decision to file for a judgment liquidation process.

‘I won against Fifa in every way’, celebrated the Brazilian inventor, in contact with ge. ‘I won on the technical side because the spray revolutionized football. I won against Fifa when it questioned the patent, questioned me as the inventor. And now I won the World Cup. As a native of Ituiutaba, Minas Gerais, Brazilian, there is no precedent of someone winning against Fifa. I won. It’s like the David and Goliath story. Fifa is a giant, it was 23 years of battle. My feeling is one of great pride. We made history in world football,’ he concluded.

The lawyer Larissa Teixeira, from the law firm Teixeira Quattrini Silvio Rocha, who represented the Brazilian in the case, believes that justice was served.

Two months ago, in March, Fifa had already suffered a defeat in court against Heine Allemagne. In 2019, the entity filed a lawsuit in the Federal Court requesting the nullity of the Brazilian’s patent. The main argument is a supposed lack of inventive activity.

The decision at first instance by Judge Eduardo André Brandão de Brito Fernandes, 25th Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro, denied Fifa’s request and recognized Heine as the inventor of the football wall spray. Unlike the case settled in the STJ on Tuesday, this one is still subject to appeal.