OOAK Table Tennis Forum

On the day that the ITTF electorate re-elected scandal-ridden president Adham Sharara, another scandal that is very embarrassing to the ITTF has been revealed.

It comes to light that Dr. Joachim Kuhn, the ITTF Equipment Committee member in charge of ball testing and approval, the man behind the report about how great the new plastic balls are (that was recently suppressed by the ITTF without explanation) has a MAJOR conflict of interest.

Turns out that Dr. Kuhn's wife, In Sook Yoo, is one of the two patent holders, so Mr. and Mrs. Kuhn stand to make money on every new ball sold.

Now we really have to question the motives of Kuhn, who has previously stated things like the production of celluloid is 80% identical to the production of nitroglycerin and also pushed the misinformation on a ban of celluloid.

FIT, the Federation of International Table Tennis Manufacturers, is refusing to sell the plastic ball in countries where the patent is valid and demanding that the ITTF resolve this within 14 days.

Apparently these are the types of practices that 75% of the ITTF Associations support, as evidenced by their vote for Sharara, who was the driving force behind the plastic ball. Did Adham know Kuhn had a personal financial interest in moving to the new ball? Probably. Was Adham to get a percentage too? This doesn't look good.

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Homer J. Simpson

Adham's ITTF is so corrupt and full of themselves they are openly challenging anyone to do anything about it...

Talk about BLATANT corruption!!!

Where is the source of this information please?

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Larry Thoman (Newgy) posted the FIT letter on the About forum and WTurber over there jogged my memory on some things too. http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.asp ... &tid=34507

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Homer J. Simpson

This allegation is easy to proved. You cannot disown your wife.

Smells like rotten fish.

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This is what I posted on MyTableTennis.net

An interesting development on the new ball. Apparently the table tennis manufacturer's association, FIT has sent a letter saying no member companies will distribute the new poly ball in countries that have approved the ball patent so long as "Mrs. Kuhn" retains her patent rights.

http://www.tt-manufacturers.com/home.htm

http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.asp ... &tid=34507

Apparently one of the patent owners, In Sook Yoo is the wife (aka Mrs. Kuhn) of Joachim Kuhn (ITTF Equipment Cmte. member in charge of ball testing and approvals). Yeah - the same physicist who was reported as saying that making celluloid is 80% the same as making nitroglycerin.

I'm not sure how or if any of this will affect Sharara. But frankly, I find it incredible that us "regular" folks are only finding out about this now. The wife of the ITTF's "ball expert" has patent rights to the new ball?!?! Somehow that never got much public mention?!?! Of course, I have no way of knowing if or how Kuhn or his wife intended to profit from the patent. But that is what most people do with patents, so it is a reasonable concern. It's what I'd probably do with a good patent. OTOH, maybe this is just something Dr. Kuhn did for the good of table tennis? It's possible I guess. But if that were the case, I might assign the patent to the ITTF. At the least, I'd make it public what my intentions were regarding the patent.

I wonder if the various AGM approvals regarding the new ball would have gone through if the membership had been made aware of this relationship and apparent conflict of interest. It seems that FIT was aware some time ago and had been told that it would be taken care of. But it apparently hasn't been taken care of so FIT is giving the ITTF 14 days to resolve the problem.

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Jay Turberville
http://www.jayandwanda.com
Hardbat: Nittaku Resist & Dr. Evil

Adham and ITTF's true motive of replacing celluloid balls with these "patented" poly balls has been revealed.

...It's clear as daylight that the new ball is a scam.

Maybe. But here's what's bothering me. Why would DHS (or anyone else for that matter) work on developing the new ball without having secured the patent rights? That's basic business sense. I knew about the patent long ago. Surely they did too. I didn't know who In Sook Yoo was though - though seemingly this is old news to them.

Stuff still doesn't add up IMO.

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Jay Turberville
http://www.jayandwanda.com
Hardbat: Nittaku Resist & Dr. Evil

Couldn't trust any one of them as far as you could kick 'em these days... time for a clean sweep you'd think. Surely there is some authority with the gumption and anti-corruption agenda to go through this group and nail whoever is dirty!

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I had a quick glimpse at the patent. PVC, the polymer which is always stated as the new polyball material, is not stated once in the document as material for the ball. A lot of other thermoplastic polymers are mentioned, but no PVC.

So there must be another patent, that claims PVC as TT-ball material, which I cannot find.

Edit: Or the manufacturers chose PVC just because it is not covered by the patent...

Seems the manufacturers aren't excited about being legally bound to pay Mr. and Mrs. Kuhn. I guess the deal between them and Sharara was the ITTF would supply the specs/manufacturing details and DHS/DF would build it, but they didn't expect a sneaky ITTF committee member would patent it under his wife's maiden name, leaving them liable for paying licensing fees.

Here is the letter as posted on About.com by Newgy's Larry Thoman:

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The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
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No matter how good you are at something, there's always about a million people better than you.
Homer J. Simpson

Surely we the players have a part to play here .... Don't be a party to this ....
DON'T USE PLASTIC BALLS

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The ITTF probably thought they owned the rights because Joachim Kuhn was working for them. But the actual patent was awarded to a company in the name of Kuhn's wife called "In Sook Yoo International Project Management—IPM." It appears they quietly had it patented by the World Intellectual Property Organization which covers 90% of the world's countries, plus the European Patent Office, plus it looks like they specifically had it patented in China, the United States, Germany, Korea, Japan and Austria before the ITTF even knew what hit them.

My guess is Mr. and Mrs. Kuhn are looking for a big million dollar payoff from the ITTF to resolve this.

I would love it if this whole plastic ball thing falls apart and they just cancel this ball that nobody wants.

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The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
Table Tennis Video Links: itTV | laola1.tv | ttbl | fftt | Challenger Series | mnnb-tv

No matter how good you are at something, there's always about a million people better than you.
Homer J. Simpson

I would like to know all the deals made to the first producers of the new ball,,,how they were picked,,,cost of patent rights,,,much more.