Alexander Rudd is, apart from his dribbles and passes, known for one thing. Whenever he runs up to the right side on his opponent’s half, chances are there that we will see one of his famous backhand shots. He now claimed the patent on his shot which is now his intellectual property which means you can be sued for shooting with the backhand.

First of all, what is Alexander Rudd’s backhand shot?

Alexander Rudd has done it time and time again and his famous backhand shot gave the Swedish superstar a lot of fame. Most recently, the shot could be seen in the finals of the World Floorball Championships of 2018 where Alexander Rudd. He runs up in a counter, is driven to the right side of the field, forced to his backhand. He then lifts his stick high, fakes a backhand shot, lifts it again but this time launches a powerful shot that takes Eero Kosonen by surprise. See the video below (for mobile phone users, go to 1:32):





So what happened?

In 2018, Alexander Rudd filed in a patent application with the European Patent Office concerning his backhand shot claiming the role of inventor of the shot. A week ago, the patent was approved and published in Bulletin 2019/14. This means that he is the only player that can use the ‘full swing backhand’ shot – the one which he is known for – and that it falls under his intellectual copyright. The patent document can be found here:

Since the patent has been approved this means that anyone can (potentially) be sued for using a full swing backhand shot during training, a match or even at home. Although this will likely not happen, things could be different at bigger international events, think WFC2020, and a scenario where all players – except Alexander Rudd – exclusively shoot with their forehand doesn’t seem unlikely at all.

What do you think about this?