Peru: Football and Intellectual Property

This week we have two news related to football. The world cup always brings some technological advances that result in better sporting equipment e.g., Brazuca (the official ball of the 2014 World Cup that was invented to improve the aerodynamics and to make it water resistant). Adidas has been championing the football ball, but we do not hear much about small ‘players’, are they also innovating? Hernan Garrido Lecca, a Peruvian writer, producer, and inventor this year obtained a ‘utility model’ patent (Resolution N°000889-2022/DIN-INDECOPI) for ‘a highly competitive football jersey that helps players "kill the rebound" when receiving the ball with their chest during long passes. Garrido is using the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) to protect his invention internationally (see info here at INDECOPI).

In the same line, at the Peruvian IPO (INDECOPI) YouTube Channel, I watched ‘Dreams of Entrepreneurships’: The story of ‘Pragol’ a registered trade mark. Carla Paredes, a young woman who has always be passionate about football, grew up on an environment where football was not meant to be played by ‘girls’ – so she was told, and to play with dolls instead. Paredes, now is a entrepreneur who developed the mark ‘Pragol’ for urban clothing’. The mark is dedicated to female football fans, supporters and players and thus, a mark that inspire girls to follow their passion for football ‘without stereotypes’. Her aim is to ‘change the misperception that football is only for men’. One of her first steps was to register her mark – she notes, ‘nobody will steal this football dream from me’.

Picture adopted from Paredes's Instagram account