Patent Application
20090127273
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to displaying a container in the upright position, and, more particularly, the present invention provides a circumferential sleeve that can be placed around a food container to permit the container to stand upright.
2. Description of Related Art
Containers for food packages come in all shapes and sizes and almost always have some sort of product labeling to promote the food product in the container as well as to provide information regarding nutrition and ingredients. Many of the food containers used to store and promote the food to a consumer also can be used by a consumer as a dish, bowl, or tray. In such instance; a consumer can eat directly out of the food container. This is the case, for example, with trays or bowls which contain food items such as pudding, frozen foods, and dips. Dips, like other refrigerated products such as butter and sour cream, are available in round tub-like bowls made from plastic. Such containers and lids often have promotional material printed directly on the lid and on the side of the container or bowl. In the case of a tray, the promotional material is usually placed directly or indirectly (e.g., via an outer cardboard packaging) on the lid because the lid has the most exposed surface area for promotional material. Unfortunately, trays do not stand up well and bowls, if placed on their side so that the lid stock faces the consumer, can roll in the clockwise or counter clockwise direction, making it difficult to provide a neat, uniform display. Further, as the bowls rotate, the promotional graphics or lettering can be re-oriented, making it difficult for the consumer to read. Additionally, depending on the geometry of a bowl, it may not be able to stand up at all. For example, if a square-shaped bowl is tapered and the circumference of the bottom is much smaller than the circumference of the area adjacent to the lid, the bowl will not be able to stand upright. Consequently, a need exists for a container that can stand upright on a supermarket shelf to allow consumers to easily see the promotional materials for that product.
The present invention is directed towards a circumferential sleeve for holding a container upright. In one aspect, the circumferential sleeve comprises a strip defined by a first side and a second that is separated from the circumferential sleeve. In one aspect, the strip comprises a first end that is contiguous with a first portion of the circumferential sleeve and a second end that is attached to a second portion of the sleeve. In one aspect, the strip provides a sturdy foot that protrudes from the sleeve to permit round, tapered, or containers having lips to stand upright when placed in the circumferential sleeve of the present invention. The above, as well as additional features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following written detailed description.
The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
In one embodiment, the circumferential sleeve 100 comprises a front panel 130 adjacent to both a top edge 132 and a bottom edge 134. The top edge 132 and bottom edge 134 can be sized to fit over the lip 202 of the container 200 when the container is placed in the sleeve 100. The top edge 132 can be adjacent to an upper panel 136 and the bottom edge 134 can be adjacent to a lower panel 138. In one embodiment, a rear panel 140 and a back panel 142 are fastened via glue, tape, or other suitable means to each other and are situated between the upper panel 136 and lower panel 138.
One advantage of the circumferential sleeve 100 depicted is that food containers 200 having tapered sides can be placed into the circumferential sleeve 100 so that promotional material on the front panel 130 can be viewed by consumers. Because the front panel 130 has the largest surface area, it is more conducive to providing promotional material in a size that can be easily read by a consumer.
In the embodiment depicted in
Referring back to
There are several other advantages conferred by various embodiments of the present invention. In one aspect, the present invention permits a way to stand up a tapered or untapered container having a protruding lip. Bowls having a tapered design wherein the bottom of the bowl has a diameter less than the diameter of the top of the bowl can be stood upright when placed in the circumferential sleeve of the present invention. Further, the sleeve 100 of the present invention can be used more effectively than prior art sleeves because the protruding strip 110 is much sturdier than the stand-up tabs of the prior art because the strip 110 does not terminate outside the sleeve 100. Consequently, there are no ends that can get snagged and it is less likely to crease near the rear 140 or back panels 142. Moreover, because of the design of the protruding strip 110 of the present invention, the present invention can be advantageously used for food containers displayed in refrigerators or freezers in grocery stores because the strip of the present invention is less susceptible to weakening due to condensate. Further, the present invention provides a way to display circular bowls in an upright manner without the worry that the bowls will roll while on the shelf and with confidence and knowledge that the lettering for other promotional graphics will be oriented in the proper direction. The present invention can be efficiently made from a single blank of cardboard, paper, or other suitable material with no added material. Consequently, the present invention provides a circumferential sleeve made from a simple die-cut design.
The present invention also permits marketing of containers having no graphical material. For example, because the containers can be removed from the circumferential sleeve by the consumer when the consumer has purchased the product, the container itself can be reused by the consumer and the container can appear to have been purchased by the consumer as a container, rather than recycled from a tub of butter, dip, or other food product.
Further, containers more elegant in design can be made and sold to consumers or caterers who can place the containers out directly for consumption without placing the food product into another serving dish. For example, of the person or company is having a dinner party, a consumer can purchase a pre-made dip in a container held in a circumferential sleeve 100 of the present invention and the consumer can discard the sleeve 100, placing the unmarked container out for people to use to retrieve their dip without the need for transferring the dip into an unmarked dish for a more elegant appearance than can be achieved with promotional material displayed.
While this invention has been particularly shown and described the preference to the preferred embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, although the strip 110 is depicted as being contiguous with the bottom edge 134 in the Figures, in one embodiment, the first end 111 strip can be contiguous with a back panel 142, and the second end 112 can be attached to the front panel 130 or the bottom edge 134.
