The VAR is giving less to talk about during the Eurocup, but Yes, there is going to be a lot of talk about this tool in the Madrid Courts. Miguel Angel Galán, which owns the industrial property of the brand after receiving a favorable resolution from the European Union against Mediapro, and Antonio Ibáñez de Alba, who claims to be the intellectual owner of the tool and who registered it in 1995, They will have a conciliation act with FIFA, UEFA and RFEF on July 29 at the Mercantile Court number 7 in Madrid.
Both Miguel Ángel Galán and Antonio Ibáñez started a conversation with FIFA about the VAR's claim to authorship and even proposed improvements to the tool (triangulation units under the grass to detect offside or phantom goals). But As both had already warned, if they were not recognized as owners of the VAR and they reached an agreement, they would go to court. And so it will be. The Commercial Court of Madrid has summoned them so that all parties can see each other in an act of conciliation. The two Spaniards who face the three great soccer federations keep their pulse against them, If a consensus is not reached in said meeting, they will ask the court for a precautionary measure to suspend the use of the VAR in all football competitions.
A conflict that comes from afar
At the beginning of October 2020, as AS already recounted, Miguel Angel Galán (director of the CENAFE coaching school) won the industrial property of the Video-Assistant Referee brand, from Mediapro in the Intellectual Property Office of the European Union. Whose resolution awarded him the possibility of exploiting his trademark for the next ten years.
On the other hand, Antonio Ibáñez de Alba has the intellectual property of the tool. The NASA scientist from Cadiz was hired in 1995 by Mario Conde, and outraged by Tassotti's nudge against Luis Enrique in the 1994 World Cup, he drew up the preliminary report of an intelligent system to assist in arbitration decisions. It was registered on September 1, 1995. Although later, Ibáñez would end up denouncing Conde, in jail and seized, for the appropriation of patents and as the only way to collect his work.
But Ibáñez is not the only one who fights in court assuring that the invention is his. In 2017, Francisco López, with papers in hand, assured it in this newspaper. He accuses FIFA and RFEF of plagiarism. The project you are talking about He called it 'Football of the XXI Century', registered it in the General Registry of Intellectual Property in 1999 and expanded it in 2006. Francisco López hopes that a judge will soon decide on the lawsuit filed with FIFA and the Federation.