The present invention relates to drinking straws.
The increased popularity of fast-food establishments, coupled with the popularity of consumption of food and beverages on the go, have led to the need for more convenient and safer takeout packaging.
Currently, a consumer wishing to drink from a takeout beverage container has two standard options: sipping the beverage through a sip hole in the lid of the beverage container, as is common for hot drinks such as coffee; or sucking the beverage through a straw placed into the beverage container, as is common for drinks consumed cold, such as sodas. Sip holes, typically used for hot beverages, require the consumer to take small sips to avoid scalding. While many consumers would prefer a controlled or regulated delivery of their hot beverage, standard straws do not allow for the liquid to cool to a comfortable temperature before reaching the consumer's mouth and thus have the potential to cause burns. Both straws and sip holes can be hazardous when the consumer is engaged in an activity, such as driving or walking, that requires maintaining eyes forward to watch the path ahead, and which may involve sudden stops. The consumer may have to look down and away from the road while drinking from a straw or may have forward vision obstructed by the beverage container while tipping it back to drink via a sip hole. Straws are also potentially dangerous if the consumer's head decelerates quickly while drinking, for example when braking unexpectedly during a drive. In that case, the straw may stab the consumer in the roof of her or his mouth. While some straws incorporate a flexible portion to allow the consumer to keep eyes forward, they do not eliminate this risk of stabbing, and further must be sized particularly for each height of beverage container.
Existing takeout beverage and food containers are also inconvenient, requiring the consumer to set aside a sandwich to take a drink, for example; or, in the case of a beverage container with a lid that accepts a snap-on food container, the food container must be decoupled in order for the consumer to sip a hot drink through a sip hole.
What is therefore needed is a straw that overcomes these drawbacks and fosters convenient on-the-go drinking.
The present invention provides an elegant solution to the needs described above and provides numerous additional benefits and advantages as will be apparent to persons of skill in the art.
One aspect provides a container lid that can be coupled to a food container, wherein the lid includes a continuous outer coupling trough for attachment to the open top of a beverage container and where the trough circumscribes a footprint of the container lid. A straw-hole planar surface is disposed within the footprint, the straw-hole planar surface is adjacent to the outer coupling trough and a hole for drinking a liquid in the container extends through the straw-hole planar surface. A riser wall extends away from the straw-hole planar surface and defines a first planar surface above the straw-hole planar surface. A sip hole extends through the first planar surface. A food container coupling wall connects to the first planar surface and extends from the first planar surface to a position lower than the first planar surface and a food container coupling bottom connected to the food container coupling wall.
The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not meant to be exhaustive. Other aspects, objects, and advantages of this invention will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims.
The invention can be better understood with reference to the following figures. The components within the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed on clearly illustrating example aspects of the invention. In the figures, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the different views and/or embodiments. It will be understood that certain components and details may not appear in the figures to assist in more clearly describing the invention.
Following is a non-limiting written description of example embodiments illustrating various aspects of the invention. These examples are provided to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to practice the full scope of the invention without having to engage in an undue amount of experimentation. As will be apparent to persons skilled in the art, further modifications and adaptations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, which is limited only by the claims. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. Particular example embodiments of the present invention may be implemented without some or all of these features or specific details. In other instances, components well known to persons of skill in the art have not been described in detail in order not to obscure unnecessarily the present invention.
Previous straw designs addressed this problem with a short section of the straw that was bendable with an accordion-like structure. The portion of the straw on either end of the accordion-like structure was straight, and bending the accordion-like structure could create a 90-degree turn such that the user would access the end of the straw in the horizontal position. But as discussed below, when these accordion-like bendable straws are used with a top-mounted snap-on food container that may be larger than the beverage container lid, the straw must be sized in relation to the height of each particular type of beverage container, thereby reducing their utility.
In addition to the safety feature of allowing a consumer to drink in a natural horizontal position without diverting her or his gaze, the straw also is compliant so as to minimize stabbing that is common with a conventional straw.
A further feature of the straw concerns its ability to regulate or cool hot liquids during use to prevent burns.
Currently, hot liquids are delivered from a beverage container to the consumer via a sip hole that allows a user to tip the container and sip the hot liquid. It is the sipping that allows the liquid to cool, preventing scalding. Because the bendable straw can be used for hot beverages, it is helpful that the length and internal surface area of the straw allows the liquid to cool when it travels from the beverage container to the consumer's mouth. Conventional circular straws (by circular, it is meant the cross section) do not allow for safely bending or deflecting off a top mounted food container, nor do they sufficiently regulate or cool a hot liquid. For this reason, consumers do not use a conventional circular straw for consuming hot beverages. Rather, the bendable straw disclosed herein may be used to have a properly sized cross-sectional area and length such that the amount of liquid entering the consumer's mouth is properly regulated or cooled, and therefore will not scald the user. This is especially helpful when the user is performing some other task while consuming the beverage. For example, a user who is driving would prefer to use a straw to consume the hot beverage such that his or her gaze is not diverted or obstructed by having to tilt the beverage container to access the liquid from the sip hole.
OH=(Friction Factor×(L/Hydraulic Diameter))×((Velocitŷ2)/(2*Gravimetric Acceleration))
Each of these parameters is calculated and presented in
A food container coupling bottom 250 is connected to the food container coupling wall. The straw hole planar surface 220 may also have a straw hole cover 255 and a hinge 260, wherein the straw hole cover rotates about the hinge and exposes the hole 225 when a straw is punched through the hole 225. To prevent the straw hole cover 255 from inadvertently opening, it may have a tick 265 that connects it to the straw hole planar surface 220. The straw hole 220 may have a substantially rectangular shape with rounded corners 280, which would accommodate the straw 10 disclosed above.
One benefit of having the straw hole cover 255 is that a user may prefer to use the sip hole 240. If the straw hole 225 does not have a cover 255, rather it is an open hole, the user may inadvertently spill the hot beverage while tilting the beverage cup during sipping from the sip hole 240. The straw hole cover 255 prevents this spillage. It further allows a retailer to use a single hot beverage lid for multiple users. Likewise as shown in
The straw may be constructed out of plastics, composites or other suitable materials. The straw may also be semi-rigid such that it returns to its original shape when it is not under a bending force.
The invention has been described in connection with specific embodiments that illustrate examples of the invention but do not limit its scope. Various example systems have been shown and described having various aspects and elements. Unless indicated otherwise, any feature, aspect or element of any of these systems may be removed from, added to, combined with or modified by any other feature, aspect or element of any of the systems. As will be apparent to persons skilled in the art, modifications and adaptations to the above-described systems and methods can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, which is defined only by the following claims. Moreover, the applicant expressly does not intend the following claims “and the embodiments in the specification to be strictly coextensive.” Phillips v. AHW Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1323 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (en banc).
This application is also related to U.S. Pat. No. 8,596,491 entitled “CUP LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” issued on Dec. 3, 2013; U.S. Pat. No. 8,695,845 entitled “TOP MOUNTING CAN CONTAINER” issued on Apr. 15, 2014; U.S. Pat. No. 8,381,935 entitled “CUP LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” issued on Feb. 26, 2013; U.S. Pat. No. 8,714,393 entitled “CUP LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” issued on May 6, 2014; U.S. Pat. No. 8,590,730 entitled “TOP MOUNTING CAN CONTAINER” issued on Nov. 26, 2013; U.S. Pat. No. 8,708,181 entitled “LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” issued on Apr. 29, 2014; U.S. Pat. No. 8,701,914 entitled “TWO-PART RECYCLABLE CUP” issued on Apr. 22, 2014; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/412,602 entitled “TOP MOUNTING BOTTLE CONTAINER” filed on Mar. 5, 2012; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/680,011 entitled “CUP LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” filed on Nov. 17, 2012; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/680,049 entitled “CUP LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” filed on Nov. 17, 2012; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/733,153 entitled “CUP LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” filed on Jan. 3, 2013; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/263,993 entitled “LID WITH INTEGRATED CONTAINER” filed on Apr. 28, 2014; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/269,016 entitled “A CONTAINER LID WITH ONE OR MORE CAVITIES” filed on May 2, 2014; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/274,576 entitled “A CONTAINER LID WITH A FOOD COMPARTMENT AND A SIP-HOLE” filed on May 9, 2014; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/313,907 entitled “A CONTAINER LID SYSTEM WITH A LID PORTION AND FOOD CONTAINER PORTION” filed on Jun. 24, 2014; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 62/005,862 entitled “A CONTAINER LID SYSTEM WITH A LID PORTION AND FOOD CONTAINER PORTION” filed on May 30, 2014; U.S. Patent Application 62/038,199 entitled “A CONTAINER LID SYSTEM WITH TAMPER INDICATOR” filed on Aug. 15, 2014; U.S. Patent Application 29/500,266 entitled “BENDABLE DRINKING STRAW” filed on Aug. 22, 2014; and U.S. Patent Application 62/105,256 entitled “BENDABLE SAFETY STRAW AND LIDS WITH FOOD COMPARTMENT” filed on Jan. 20, 2015; all of which are by the same inventor of the present application. Each of these applications is incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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20160128502 A1 | May 2016 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62105256 | Jan 2015 | US | |
62105256 | Jan 2015 | US |
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Parent | 14824900 | Aug 2015 | US |
Child | 14986701 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 29500266 | Aug 2014 | US |
Child | 14824900 | US | |
Parent | 13680011 | Nov 2012 | US |
Child | 29500266 | US | |
Parent | 13360707 | Jan 2012 | US |
Child | 13680011 | US | |
Parent | 13226346 | Sep 2011 | US |
Child | 13360707 | US |