A legal dispute has erupted over a quintessentially Canadian carrying case - the hockey bag.
The battle pits Aldo Buccioni, a 63-year-old hockey player and pizza restaurant owner, against Montreal luggage-maker Travelway Group International Inc. and Hockey Canada.
At issue are two hot-selling hockey bags - Mr. Buccioni's upright Hockey Tower, and Travelway's bag, which features the Hockey Canada logo.
Mr. Buccioni has sued Travelway in the Federal Court of Canada alleging that the company violated his patent and industrial design for an upright hockey bag when it began selling its product this fall in Wal-Mart. Travelway denies the allegations and insists the bags are different.
The stakes are high. Mr. Buccioni and his business partner, Greg Collins, sold about $2.8-million worth of Hockey Tower bags last year and are launching new versions for soccer players and figure skaters. Unlike typical hockey bags, the Hockey Tower stands upright, has interior shelving for equipment, and a place to fasten hockey sticks. It costs up to $159, far more than regular bags or the Travelway bag, which sells for about $110.
"This is not just a hockey bag to us. This is serious business," said Mr. Collins, who runs Grit Inc., a sports equipment design firm in Loretto, Ont., north of Toronto. "It was through just sheer energy and love that this thing actually went from an idea to a real thing."
Mr. Buccioni spent a decade designing the hockey bag in his spare time before teaming with Mr. Collins in 2004. He got the idea after getting tired of lugging his goalie equipment to and from the arena in Bolton, Ont., for games in a senior men's league.
"I figured there has got to be a better way," Mr. Buccioni said from the restaurant he opened in 1971, Baffo's Pizza in Bolton, near Brampton. "So I decided to change the lowly hockey bag that just sits on the ground and does nothing."
After dozens of drawings and mock-ups made from discarded pizza boxes, he came up with the upright bag design in 1994. He patented it in Canada and the United States a few years later. He tried to make and market the product on his own but ran out of money and turned to Mr. Collins, whom he met through a friend.
Mr. Collins refined the design, found a manufacturer in China and contacted a buyer at Sports Experts, a sporting-goods chain in Quebec. They launched the Hockey Tower bag in 2006 and sales have risen steadily. Mr. Collins said they sold more than 30,000 bags last year across Canada.
In October, someone told them about the Travelway bag on sale in Wal-Mart with a Hockey Canada logo. Mr. Buccioni and Mr. Collins became convinced the bag was identical to theirs and contacted Travelway and Hockey Canada (which has a licensing agreement with the Montreal company).
When the two men didn't get what they felt was a satisfactory reply, they sued Travelway seeking $500,000 in damages and an injunction to block it from selling the Travelway bag.
Gerry Shadeed, an executive vice-president at Travelway, called the claims groundless. "My only comment is, if you review [the allegations] it should be clear to you that Travelway is not infringing on any rights [Grit]owns," he said in an e-mail.
Sean Kelly, general counsel for Hockey Canada, which is not named in the suit, said he could not comment because the case is before the court.
Mr. Buccioni still plays hockey at least twice a week and has launched another venture called Hold-It, which is a small brace to hang tools, hockey sticks and other gear. But around the rink he's best known for the Hockey Tower. So much so that when he recently had a bad game, Mr. Buccioni said his teammates offered this suggestion: "They said next week could you put a sweater on your hockey bag and put your hockey bag in net. At least your hockey bag stands up."
Paul Waldie