Sometimes it is the little item that you hardly notice that plays a role in protecting you (or a company’s profits).

I was in Boston on holiday recently and did what for me is very unusual. I walked into one of the many branches of Starbucks and bought a coffee. The cup had a sleeve made of corrugated paper. This is what it looked like.  

On the few occasions I’ve bought coffee in a shop, it came without a sleeve.

I was intrigued to see the mention of three patents: two utility patents, and one design patent (prefixed by a D). Designs are for the look, the others are for function.

The stated commitment to recycling was admirable, but I assumed that the sleeve was to protect consumers from scalded hands, and hence the company from being sued. A little research revealed that in 1995 a Californian woman took Starbucks to court over spilled hot coffee. Such incidents could result from the consumer reacting violently to a surprisingly hot cup, as felt through the fingers. At the time it was stated that 12 such actions were pending against fast food chains. Google’s news archive reveals many more cases.

I investigated the patents. The earliest is US 5205473, which was filed in 1992, for a “Recyclable corrugated beverage container and holder”. It was by the Design By Us company, of Philadelphia. Here it its main drawing.



It is quite simply for the corrugated cardboard. The patent explains that a cheap, environmentally friendly (unlike plastic) insulating material is needed “for thermally spacing the hands of the user from the harsh temperatures of the contents of the container.” I was surprised that the invention was thought to be new – the first patent for corrugated paper goes back to 1872.

My Patent of the Month, though, is the other utility patent, US 6863644, which is for a machine for making such insulation sleeves.

This time the applicant was LBP Manufacturing, Inc., of Cicero, Illinois. In many ways the machines to make familiar products are more interesting than the patent for the item itself. It is difficult to invent useful products, but it is more challenging still to invent machines that economically manufacture useful versions of the product.

Sure enough, the abstract provided by the applicant states that it is a “machine and method for producing beverage container holders of consistently high quality at high production rates and at an economical cost”. 50,000 beverage container holders could be produced per hour.

The patent refers to the other utility patent listed on the holder and describes its concave and convex edges. It implies that the invention is to manufacture this particular kind of device. The “blanks” of corrugated cardboard, (10), are introduced into the machine by an “operator” in such a way that they are properly aligned, with the correct spacing between them (to prevent jams). This is vital as the process is carried out at great speed. The blanks then go onto conveyor belts such as (52) and (53) in the drawing.

There are many work stations along the length of the machine, at one side or the other, to carry out various processes. These include folding the end flap so that it lies flat over the central section, applying adhesive, the other end flap goes over it, and then heat and pressure is then applied so that the adhesive is activated. There is a vast amount of detail in the patent specification about what exactly happens, with an additional 20 drawings. At the end, a second operator loads the holders into shipping cartons.  

Design patent 543844 is also by LBP and is for the look of the holder. Its designer is one of the two inventors of the process patent. All this effort was, and is, being made for an apparently trivial item that is swiftly discarded by customers.

Our Patent of the Month is provided courtesy of Steve Van Dulken from the British Library.

Steve has worked since 1987 as a patents librarian at the British Library. Author of Inventing the American Dream, Inventing the 19th century and Inventing the 20th century, both popular science, and of British patents of invention, 1617-1977: a guide for researchers and editor of Introduction to patents information.
Coffee cup holders