Including Drinking Vessel Patents (Class 206/217)
  • Patent number: 4111303
    Abstract: A nestable container of resilient plastics material comprises integral bottom and side walls, the side walls diverging generally from the bottom to the top. The container has means for holding the containers together in a stack, comprising projections which provide pairs of mutually opposed shoulders on the outside of the container and projections on the inside of the container. The space between the shoulders of each pair is slightly less than the width of each projection on the inside of the container so that when such identical containers are brought together the shoulders on one container are displaced circumferentially to allow the projections on the inside of the other container to pass between them and engage behind them holding the cups together.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 1976
    Date of Patent: September 5, 1978
    Assignee: Mars Limited
    Inventor: Peter Arnold Compton
  • Patent number: 4098397
    Abstract: A multi chambered thermal container adapted to receive and maintain a plurality of liquids at various temperatures. The container comprises an outer casing formed from layers of aluminum, insulation, and plastic. Two semi annular chambers as well as a cylinder shaped chamber are contained within the container. A compartment is provided for the storage of drinking glasses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 1975
    Date of Patent: July 4, 1978
    Inventors: William Mann, Jr., Willa L. Mann
  • Patent number: 4096947
    Abstract: A synthetic resinous nesting cup construction suitable for manual or mechanical or serial dispensing. The cups, in nested condition, each define a recess capable of retaining a dehydrated commestible above a lower wall thereof, the recess being sealed by the engagement of each cup with another nested therein over a predetermined peripheral area adjacent the upper edge of the cup, whereby a substantially uniform force along the axis of a stack of cups is required for each successive separation. The cups are substantially free of other contact when nested. In alternate forms of the invention, the recess is sealed by a soluble or frangible wafer, permitting the cup to be stacked in upside down condition for manual or mechanical separation from a console of table height.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 1977
    Date of Patent: June 27, 1978
    Inventor: Milton Morse
  • Patent number: 4074827
    Abstract: A closure for a container. The closure includes a base member having a central portion and a peripheral flange and a cover member also having a central portion and a peripheral flange. The cover member is adapted to be releasably secured to the base member such that when secured a cavity is formed between the respective members. The cavity is adapted for holding products, e.g., premiums or advertising material therein. Alternatively, a game or amusement device can be disposed within the cavity. To that end, in one embodiment of the invention the base member includes at least one recess and at least one ball adapted to fit within the recess to provide a game of skill. Means are provided, such as a cross-cut in the closure to enable a straw to be extended therethrough and into the container with the closure in place. A marginal portion is provided in one embodiment on the flange of the cover member to facilitate the separation of the cover member from the base member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 1976
    Date of Patent: February 21, 1978
    Inventor: Jacob Labe, III
  • Patent number: 4061782
    Abstract: A beverage package cup is described. The cup includes a disposable drinking cup body having a lower portion containing a dry beverage ingredient. A removable cap hermetically seals the beverage ingredient in the lower portion of the cup body. The lower portion of the cup body also includes a plurality of inwardly directed internal lugs for preventing excessive inward displacement of a second cup stacked inside the first.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 1976
    Date of Patent: December 6, 1977
    Assignee: Redimix Beverages Limited
    Inventor: Gerald M. Baxter
  • Patent number: 4060176
    Abstract: A food container lid is described which is convertible into a spoon for use in eating food from the container. A flap which is separable from the remainder of the lid is bendable at its base outward from the plane of the lid covering through approximately 180.degree. so that such flap provides a spoon bowl and the lid otherwise provides a handle for manipulation of such spoon bowl. The base of the flap is positioned inwardly of the peripheral edge portion of the lid covering so that when the flap is bent outward it overlaps such peripheral edge portion which thereby provides rigidity to the connection between the spoon bowl and the handle. The lid covering and the base of the spoon bowl flap are foldable upon themselves with the covering encompassing the base in order to enhance such structural rigidity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 1975
    Date of Patent: November 29, 1977
    Inventor: John R. Tobiasson
  • Patent number: 4054205
    Abstract: The bottom portion of a cupshaped vessel adapted to fit snugly over the rim of a conventional beverge can is provided with a selectively slotted opening preferably bounded by a sealing rib, the opening being contoured to approximate the usual pull-tab opening in the beverage can to provide a drinking attachment therefor. A second sealing rib may be provided to reseal the opening of the beverage can for storage and transport upon the rotation of the drinking attachment from a first or drinking position to a second or sealing position. The vessel may be provided with a lid portion to serve as a product container the contents of which may be emptied and the vessel thereafter used as a drinking attachment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 1976
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1977
    Inventors: James H. Blow, Jr., Louis C. Blow
  • Patent number: 4051977
    Abstract: A dispenser for holding and dispensing pills and water is disclosed comprising a tube having a pill chamber and a water chamber, a pill dispensing member being received by the pill chamber and a water dispensing member being received by the water chamber. The water dispensing member is used to seal the water chamber. The pill dispensing member contains a resilient member for biasing pills outwardly of the pill dispenser, a retainer being provided at the top of the pill dispenser to prevent the pills from being forced out of the top of the dispenser. A cap is provided on the pill dispenser having arms that extend through the retainer to grip the uppermost pill resiliently biased towards the retainer so that when the cap is used to seal the end of the pill dispenser and then removed, a pill is taken through the retainer and held in the cap.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 1976
    Date of Patent: October 4, 1977
    Assignee: Lawrence Peska Assoc., Inc.
    Inventor: Carolyn VeAlletto Steinfeld
  • Patent number: 4052037
    Abstract: A moulded plastics drinking cup for use in beverage vending machines and intended to contain powdered solid water-soluble or dispersible ingredients has a bottom formed as an upwardly directed cuspidal cone extending from the central region of the cup bottom to the sidewall without discontinuity. This shaping confers a desirable flow pattern on hot liquid injected into the cup in the machine and avoids mixing problems incurred with prior art cup bottoms. The conical form need not be complete but may be truncated to give a relatively flat central region that may be planar or domed. The bottom and side wall are preferably interconnected by a bevelled shoulder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 1973
    Date of Patent: October 4, 1977
    Assignee: Mars Limited
    Inventors: Barrie Mair, Bernard Roy Schumann
  • Patent number: 4043478
    Abstract: A beverage container having a bottom and a contiguous side wall is provided with an integral lid and straw. The straw includes a passageway formed by the cup side wall and a tubular extension thereof which is maintained against the outside of the cup beneath the lid before use. In use, the lid is removed from the outside of the side wall of the container and positioned within the top of the container, and the straw is positioned away from the side wall for drinking a beverage from the container through the passageway and straw.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 1976
    Date of Patent: August 23, 1977
    Inventor: Richard D. Duncan
  • Patent number: 4040561
    Abstract: A process for packing a liquid, pasty or granular product, comprises: theforming, in a first chain of work stations, juxtaposed containers from a first band of thermoplastic material, these containers remaining joined to the first band by their top edges, which are in the same plane as the first band; filling the containers so formed with the product; thermoforming, a second chain of work stations superimposed on the first plurality of work stations, profiled closure lids from a second band of thermoplastic material; moving the second band stepwise and in synchronism with the first band so that each closure lid covers the open end of a respective filled container; covering the closure lids with a guarantee sheet formed from a guarantee band; sealing each guarantee sheet on the rim of the respective closure lid simultaneously with sealing of said closure lid to a rim of the respective container; and separating the sealed containers from one another, each closure lid being formed of a profiled portion a part of
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 1975
    Date of Patent: August 9, 1977
    Assignee: Societe Anonyme dite: Etude et Realisation de Chaines Automatiques - ERCA
    Inventor: Raymond C. Philippon
  • Patent number: 4039435
    Abstract: A container assembly for storing a predetermined quantity of foodstuff, medication or the like product comprises a unitary container divided into upper and lower compartments and having a circumferential inner sidewall portion encircling the container interior and dividing it into the two compartments. The product is prefilled in the lower compartment and a closure member fits within the container and coacts therewith to hermetically seal the product within the lower compartment. In one embodiment, the closure member has an annular depending lip which engages in a complementary groove in the container sidewall to seal the lower compartment, and in an alternative embodiment, the closure member has on its underside a ring of adhesive material which adheres to a complementary surface portion of the container sidewall to effectively seal the lower compartment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 1975
    Date of Patent: August 2, 1977
    Inventor: Sydney Paul Narva
  • Patent number: 4036392
    Abstract: A disposable cover element for a disposable beverage container having a recess centrally formed in the exterior surface thereof adapted to carry readily removably secured therein a foldable drinking straw. Such drinking straw includes two transversely corrugated lengths, the centers of which are spaced apart a distance substantially equal to one-half of the total length of such drinking straw, and which are each bendable into a half-loop configuration. Such drinking straw further includes a straight length extending between the two corrugated lengths thereof, as well as shorter terminal straight lengths.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 1976
    Date of Patent: July 19, 1977
    Inventor: Marvin C. Martin
  • Patent number: 4033453
    Abstract: A drinking cup that has a hollow or false bottom that includes a quantity of medicine or comestible thereon, the bottom adapted to be broken to release the same for introduction into the drinking cup for subsequent mixing with water, a drinking straw forms a part of the rupturable bottom of the cup.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 1976
    Date of Patent: July 5, 1977
    Inventor: Joseph Giaimo
  • Patent number: 4024951
    Abstract: A plurality of stacked cups are nested and axially constrained against separation to assure cup-to-cup sealed engagement with portions of adjacent cups to prevent sifting of product from sealed enclosures between adjacent cups. The cups are thick walled, one piece molded plastic cups formed with integral radially inwardly projecting shoulder means spaced upwardly of the bottom wall of the cup. A marginal portion of an adjacent telescoped cup abuts and rests on the shoulder means to form the sealed enclosure for the deliquescent or hygroscopic material which can be reconstituted with the addition of water.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 1975
    Date of Patent: May 24, 1977
    Assignee: Compact Industries, Inc.
    Inventor: John Foster Green
  • Patent number: 4018904
    Abstract: A container for an instant food comprises an outer receptacle and an inner receptacle snugly fitted into the outer receptacle. The inner receptacle has a flange substantially arcuate in cross section and laterally extending beyond the marginal edge of the open end of the outer receptacle. The open end of the container is closed by a covering made of a pliable material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 1975
    Date of Patent: April 19, 1977
    Assignee: Acecook Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Keiji Muraoka
  • Patent number: 3976795
    Abstract: Dehydrated instant-cooking food contained in a self-cooking container heat-insulated and easy to handle by hand, fitted with a laminated, rigid or semi-rigid top cover, with aluminum foil laminated to the underside, all wrapped with a heat-contractible film, for example, polyvinyl chloride, having a low ventilating nature. Preferably the top cover is provided with a projecting portion permitting easy, partial or total removal of the top cover. Also disclosed is a method for making the same.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 1975
    Date of Patent: August 24, 1976
    Assignee: Nissin Shokuhin Kaisha, Ltd.
    Inventor: Momofuku Ando
  • Patent number: 3950918
    Abstract: A disposable container consisting of a tetrahedral-shaped chamber and a base member formed from a folded cardboard blank pre-coated with an adhesive layer and having folding guides at desired locations to provide the base with arms to hold the chamber. The chamber is formed from a segment of flexible plastic tubing, sealed at the bottom and sealed at the top on a line transverse to the sealing line at the bottom to form the tetrahedral-shaped chamber. The chamber is stably mounted on the base member, which provides a wide surface for supporting and protecting the tetrahedral chamber and also provides labeling surfaces for the container.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 1974
    Date of Patent: April 20, 1976
    Inventors: Darrell R. Morrow, Michael Schuler