Skating Around the Issue of Prior Public Disclosure

Bauer v. Easton In Bauer Hockey Corp. v. Easton Sports Canada Inc. 2011 FCA 83 (hereinafter Bauer v. Easton), the Canadian Federal Court of Appeals considered an appeal from Easton that it had infringed Bauer's patent pertaining to a skate boot and induced a third-party manufacturer to do the same. It was also Easton's position that the trial judge had erred in finding the patent was not invalid on the basis of anticipation and obviousness. Bauer cross appealed from a portion of the trial judgment that some of Easton's skate models did not breach its patent.

The Court made several determinations including that Bauer's patent was not anticipated on the basis that a company sponsored Test League comprised of Bauer employees and others wearing prototype skates made by the company in a public facility did not by itself effect an enabling disclosure of the inventive elements of the prototype skates, and did not itself act as a bar to patentability. This aspect is the