Keep Your Drink Warm with some IP

You know what I really appreciate? Travel coffee/tea/whatever mugs that keep my beverage hot for hours. And not just a couple, but for 5 or so. Up until recently, I'd been using the same one for well over a decade because it was so incredibly effective. Unfortunately, it finally broke, and I was forced to use a newer version of the same container--only to find that it's not nearly as good! What happened?

I know for a fact that my old travel mug had multiple patents (this is me, of course I looked). Why abandon them? Ok, aside from the fact that given the age of my tumbler, they had likely passed into public domain (remember, patents have specific time limits). But that doesn't mean they couldn't continue to use the same design.

In celebration of the life of the coffee mug I loved and lost, and in hopes that the new one I bought for my husband's birthday is better--despite being the same brand--let us look at some Contigo (owned by Ignite USA) coffee tumbler lid patents. 

Please pay no mind to the table chaos in the background

There are three listed on the base of my current tumbler: 7,546,933, 7,997,442, and D564,841. Without looking them up, I can tell you immediately that these are not at all new and have quite likely passed into public domain. Since it also claims patent pending, I must assume newer tech is also at work. Let's look for the newer ones. Also, both of the utility patents are continuations within the same family and don't appear to be the tech behind the particular mug they're printed on, which makes them even less interesting for this entry. 

Also, I'm going to stick to utility patents, because that would be more relevant to the ability to keep my coffee warm for long periods. 

Contigo/Ignite USA haven't been very active lately when it comes to patents, as it turns out. There is nothing more recent than 2020--either granted or in application phase. This is a little disappointing, but perhaps their business plan has its reasons.

Let's look at US 10,336,513 Lid Having a Pre-venting Lid Lever and a Seal Arm Assembly. It looks moderately similar to what I have, but not quite the same. I think it's a different model; perhaps it is more effective. Maybe I should buy more tumblers and find out!

A diagram of the lid assembly from US 10,336,513

Next up is US 10,455,959 Portable Beverage Container with a Robust and Easily Cleanable Seal Mechanism. It's nothing like the coffee tumblers I know--it looks more like it is intended for chilled beverages, with the straw-like opening.

This image makes the lid look impossibly complicated

Finally, we have US 10,898,017 No-Spill Drinking Container, that again looks more like it is for a chilled beverage, similar to the above. In fact, they might be for the same whole bottle, just different parts.

It is hard to spill when drinking with a straw

 

How disappointing! None of these are for my coffee mug and none of them explain why the newer version is less effective. Perhaps more research of other patents and other patent office databases would be required.

A History of Coffee Making Inventions

It's quite brief and exceedingly non-comprehensive, this history of coffee-making inventions.

But, coffee! Coffee is delicious and some of us can't morning without it. AND some of the earliest patents that still make sense in modern society are for coffee brewing. 

For example, this 1838 (only a few years after the original patent office was lost to fire) patent, no. 952, Apparatus for Making Coffee and Tea, still looks much like a simple camping coffee pot. It is clearly recognizable as some kind of kettle.

I think it's pretty obviously some kind of kettle

A few decades later, in 1865, we have some improvements for a Coffee-Percolator, patent no. 51,741.  Nason's percolator is decidedly more complex, including some springs to help facilitate the expansion during heating/percolating. Nonetheless, it could still be recognizable to anyone today who makes coffee with a stove top percolator. 

Check out that spring action!

But that doesn't mean there haven't been any changes or improvements in percolators. After all, over a century later, this percolator basket assembly was one of a few 1970s patents obtained by Corning Glass Works--the company that owns Pyrex--for their unique, new, sturdier take on a stove top percolator. Percolator Pump and Basket Assembly, patent no. 3,803,998, is essentially what inspired this post. We have a vintage Pyrex glass percolator on my stove. And, thanks to this position's curse, it got me thinking about coffee maker patents. 

It's not exactly the same as what I use

We drink vintage patented coffee in the Edlund-Arthur household

(I've decided to skip over electric percolators, because while that is also an innovation in coffee brewing, it is also less interesting to me.)

Coffee makers have become very sophisticated machines, even when they aren't restaurant grade or large affairs. For example, the Keurig K-Cup system changed how many people prepare and brew their coffee. In 1994, Keurig obtained patent no. 5,325,765 for this Beverage Filter Cartridge, which is very similar to what we now see lining shelves in stores. 

The first K-Cup iteration

About ten years later, in 2004, Keurig would be granted a patent for their puncturing system that is common to many single-use pod coffee brewing systems today. Patent no. 6,708,600 describes the system in Puncturing and Venting of Single Serve Beverage Filter Cartridge. I have something very similar in my kitchen (but I've upgraded to a reusable pod).

It looks exceedingly complex in this dissected view

Reduce, reuse, recycle!

Keurig hasn't stopped updating their machines, applying for and receiving patents for a number of improvements. Here's a more recent example, a 2018 patent, no. 10,136,754, for  Beverage Machine Cartridge Holder. This cartridge holder is size adjustable, which I can appreciate, because I bought an off-brand reusable pod for my first Keurig and found it didn't fit. 

This is not the same coffee maker in the patent nor is it the first model I purchased that had size issues

For those of you who love some iced coffee, there are patented machines for making specific styles. Among some of the most recently granted patents is no. 12,004,677, Japanese-Style Iced Coffee Maker. I've never been a huge fan of iced coffee unless it's a dessert coffee, but I can understand the appeal on some steamy Houston mornings.

Ice included in the patent figure, just in case

Let me know if you'd like to see some other coffee IP. I rather conspicuously picked patents that were most interesting and familiar to my own coffee habits, but I'd be interested in learning about potential Chemex style patents, or who had one of the first drip coffee brewers patented in the US, for example. I know there are many librarians who survive via coffee, so don't be shy to let me know in comments!