Miscellaneous
Besides the ball, the pitch, the players' kit and referee gear, explained in detail in the preceding chapters, there are numerous patent applications on technical developments in other areas concerning football or related to it: for example, the training equipment such as the classical pendulum header unit or "die Torwand" (the goal board, a target practice board), medical equipment and diagnostics (eg. lactate tests, doping tests), the stadium construction or the camera and transmission systems.
Figure 1a: Utility model document DE 1622485U describes one of the first examples of a goal board as a game for entertainment, here with three holes.
The goal board is a simple but particularly impressive example of the way that popularity can stimulate inventiveness. It is a wooden board in the form of a goal with several ball-size holes. It was used for target practice in training as early as in the 1950s. After the goal board had found its way into German television in the late 60s, (since then the studio guests have been proving their skills on every Saturday evening) it suddenly gained such popularity that patent applications of many new variants have been filed. Since 1968, more than 100 German patent and utility model applications on goal boards were received at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office. You can find some nice examples on this subject in the database.
Figure 1b: Example of the well-known goal board model with a hole in the top left corner and the bottom right corner (DE 6916047 U).
It would go beyond the scope of this presentation to explain all topics relating to football in such detail as the ball or the football shoes. For this reason we have compiled some current and typical patents on other topics under the heading "Documents" in the database. These examples are meant to give an idea of all the things relating to football that can be invented.
If you would like to find out more about these topics (or about other technological fields) visit the searchable patent database of the DPMA on the Internet. It contains all patent documents and utility model documents of the major patent offices.
Seats in stadium
Yes, there are even new patent applications for seats in the football stadium.
Not completely new in the idea, but in the execution is the "collapsible seat device" (AT 000000517788 A1): It describes stadium seats that can be folded together to save space and create full standing room.
DE 202015003209 U1 describes a grandstand with several rows of seats or standing places, whose folded seats can become "breakwaters" and thus serve safety.
US 020150240506 A1 describes the grandstand arrangement for a stadium with several tiers The handrail can display individual information such as the seat number or name of the spectator for reserved seats.
Seat rests
Football aficionados inventors are also working on the seat cushions in the stadium:
For example, they develop a seat pad that is heated by an exothermic reaction (EP 2548536 A1). Such a warm cushion might make sad winter kicks more bearable.
If you prefer to express your enthusiasm for your team, you can use the seat cover, which also serves as a fan banner (US 020140265464 A1).
DE 202017001970 U1 describes a seat pad that can be transported as a backpack and attached to stadium seats.
Admission control
New developments for access control such as WO002016070872A1 and numerous video surveillance systems such as DE 69623403 T2 provide more security in the stadium today.
"Emotion-based access control" (DE 10 2016 000 091 A1) makes a very interesting but certainly controversial proposal to increase security in the stadium:
"At present, visitors are all roughly checked and more detailed checks are carried out according to the inspectors' perceptions. A determination of the current emotional state of the visitors would make it possible to make control more comprehensive for suspicious persons and to examine other visitors less intensively."
The inventor also suggests: "Visitors who do not want to allow their emotional status to be queried could be subjected to comprehensive control. Thus there would be an incentive for visitors to provide their emotional data."
This procedure is intended to increase overall security and speed up access controls. The only question is whether the proposed procedure would improve the situation of people who come to the stadium in a bad mood - and in some unsuccessful clubs this is practically a chronic condition for many supporters.
However, it would certainly be good for the atmosphere in the stadium to let only good-humoured people in...
Training devices
Like everything to do with football, training is becoming increasingly professionalised and perfected. New training devices are constantly being invented for this purpose. We would like to present some recent developments here:
Apparatus and method for the training of a ball game (DE 102016108981 A1)
A device for training the accuracy of passes and shot works with the image projection of targets (DE 102016108981 A1); all training data are recorded.
Other new training devices include the ball training device with a convexly curved impact surface around the vertical axis (DE 202016107440 U1), the shot force meter with rapid ball return (US 000009403075 B1) or a device for training 360° perception and accuracy of fit by targets arranged in a circle around the player (US 020160166905 A1).
There are ball throwing machines which enable an effective training of the ball control abilities (US 020170095716 A1), training system with a simulated goalkeeper (US 020170036083 A1), simple "ball kick training devices" (US 020160375334 A1) or training equipment to improve the accuracy of kicks (US 020170087432 A1).
In addition, there are simple training shin guards with weights for strength training (WO 002016172308 A1) and simple rebound walls for training shots and ball receiving (US 020170144046 A1), but also sophisticated football simulators for training reaction speed and accuracy (WO 002017141166 A1).