While most sports cling to their key values and traditions, they have made serious attempts over the years to modernize themselves. Thousands of patents have been filed for inventions made to find new and improved ways to train and compete in various disciplines. Golf – viewed by many as one of the more traditional sports – has been the most innovative patent application since the turn of the millennium.
According to Sagacious IP, a global intellectual property research and advisory firm, 83,267 golf patents were filed between 2000 and 2019. Football ranks second in this regard with 22,397 and tennis third (20,195). Cricket has filed 1,916 patents during this period.
Understand “patents”
A patent, once granted, secures the intellectual property of the inventor for a certain period of time in return for financial compensation.
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– World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) (@WIPO) October 5, 2021
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), “a patent is an exclusive right granted to an invention that is the product of a process that generally provides a new way of doing something or a new technical solution for a problem.”
However, there is a difference between “published” and “granted” patents.
According to UpCounsel, a website that provides legal services, “Just because a patent application is published doesn’t always get it granted. Patent applications are published to make the public aware of what patent protection is seeking. This means that if the work is not actually granted a patent, the public can still learn from the work. “
Patents “granted” meanwhile what the term suggests – that the patent has been granted and is protected by intellectual property rights.
Golf as a pioneer
Jordan Spieth in action during the Masters golf tournament in April 2021. (AP Photo / Gregory Bull)
The first golf patent was filed in 1891 when Frances Archibald Fairlie introduced improvements to metal headed golf clubs.
The sport registered over 83,000 patents between 2000 and 2019. So far, however, only 26,541 of these registrations have been “granted”.
Some of the patents issued relate to data collection, storage and analysis – data such as a player’s golf swing or table of points.
Interchangeable club heads
This patent, published in July 2014, simply relates to a single golf club shaft equipped with interchangeable heads. In general, a golf bag contains numerous clubs with different heads on the top – for example, a putter and a driver. With this new invention, however, the size of the golf bag is reduced because a different club head can be screwed onto or from a single shaft.
Golf glove holder
Another published patent – dating from 2002 – is the golf glove holder mounted on the golf cart. It is specially designed to give players a quick way to dry their gloves that have become damp from sweat.
Make football modern
Between 2000 and 2019, 22,397 patents were registered and 7,392 granted in football. The first patent applied for in soccer dates back to 1907 when Maria Henriette Godey made an outer shell or cover for soccer balls, according to Sagacious IP.
The online gaming industry has developed several soccer games that have also been patented.
Portable soccer goal
Probably one of the most important inventions that have supported the current trend towards multi-purpose sports venues around the world is the invention of the portable soccer goal from 1986. Basically, the frame of the soccer goal post can be easily dismantled and stowed away when not in use, and just as easily put back up when a soccer game has to be played.
Motion graphics on the ball
Visual designs on a soccer ball are not only used as a cosmetic effect. In 2017, Nike received a patent for the motion graphics on a ball. It essentially means that the case of a soccer ball has designs in one or more contrasting colors that allow an evaluation of data – for example the number of revolutions per minute of a ball in flight after a free kick, etc.
Cricket chirps in patents
Cricket has only received 332 of the 1,916 patents filed between 2000 and 2019. The sport’s first patent came in 1894 when William David Cameron invented improvements to clubs.
A large number of modern cricket patents related to apps that collect and disseminate data. But there was also a decent number related to changes in the field.
Rain grill
In 2011, George William Beldam invented a cricket ball that does not lose its shape when wet and can be used to play when it rains. However, several other factors have affected the implementation of this patent, such as: B. poor visibility and damaged bats.
Mongoose cricket bat
Mongoose bats were popularized by Matthew Hayden. (FILE)
As the 2021 IPL season draws to a close, it should be remembered that former Australian opener Matthew Hayden decided to play with a mongoose racquet in the T20 League’s second season in 2009. The bat had a longer handle and a shorter wooden face on the underside. The face, however, was much thicker – almost three times that of a conventional bat. It offered more power when faced with Yorker or low-full throws.
Despite Hayden’s success with this racket, it did not catch on.