F sued L for allegedly infringing F's patented folding loft
stairs. The issue here was that prior to applying for patent
protection, F invited members of the public onto its premises,
where they were able to see the product under development. One of
the visitors was a press photographer, whose picture of the test
unit appeared in the newspapers. The question was whether the
invention was obvious considering that F had allowed people onto
its premises other than under a duty of confidentiality, where they
could see the product under development.
The High Court said F's patent stood. If the test unit had been
in a public place where anyone could have examined it, its design
would have been considered to have been made available to the
public. However, it was not in a public place. It was only
available for viewing by two members of the public: a minister and
photographer. They were not skilled in the art or interested in
folding attic stairs. If an officious person had stopped them on
the way out and asked them to describe the unit, on a balance of
probabilities, they were not likely to have been able to describe
the key features.
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