Patent Application
20220061560
This invention relates to improvements in the structural configuration of a vessel selected from the group consisting of a drinking glass, goblet, beverage cup or bowl from which a beverage or other pourable food can be directly consumed by a user. Such vessels can be used to serve beverages or pourable foods in a bar or dining area of a private residence, or in an institutional food service facility or public restaurant. The subject improvements impart functional benefits not achievable through use of previously known devices. Such benefits can include, for example, improved cleanliness; reduced likelihood of transferring pathogenic contaminants during use or during handling prior to use; user comfort and reduced likelihood of spillage while drinking; and more rapid atmospheric drying when inverted on a towel, storage shelf or drain rack after washing.
When dishes such as drinking glasses, beverage cups or soup bowls are washed by hand or in a dishwashing machine and are removed before their interior portion is completely dry to conserve time or energy, small water droplets are often observed “clinging” by surface tension to interior surfaces of the sidewall or bottom. Such droplets can be difficult to remove using a dish towel, particularly if the drinking glass is stemware having a top opening that is likely smaller in diameter than the hand of the person attempting to remove water droplets suspended inside. Such droplets can also leave “spots” deposited on the inwardly facing surface of a drinking glass if allowed to remain in place until they evaporate naturally. Further, if the glass is simply placed in a static, inverted position on a towel, drain board or other substantially flat surface and left to dry naturally, any minimal vertical space between the top rim of the inverted glass and an underlying support surface is usually insufficient to permit the air circulation needed to dry the inside of the glass, particularly in a humid kitchen environment. Any moisture retained inside the glass can even promote the undesirable growth of mold to an extent that is not visually apparent to a subsequent user.
Additionally, recent experiences during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and associated concerns about how to avoid spreading viruses or other pathogens to previously uninfected persons have made it highly desirable to reconsider the configuration of many articles commonly used in everyday life with a view toward making them less susceptible to promoting the transmission of infectious disease. A principal area of concern is with objects, articles or surfaces that are likely to be contacted by the hands of one person and then subsequently placed in contact with the face, mouth or hands of another.
As an example, conventional drinking glasses and beverage cups typically have a circumferentially extending sidewall with a top edge or rim defining a level, circular opening into an interior portion defined by the sidewall and a contiguous bottom portion configured to sit on an underlying support surface. Because the top rim of a glass, beverage cup or bowl is typically level (within ordinary manufacturing tolerances), a user is often indifferent as to a particular spot around the circumference or periphery of the top rim from which one drinks or pours the contents during use. An exception to this is with beverage cups or bowls having one or more fixed handle on the outside wall that influence the position from which a user drinks and usually varies according to whether the user is left- or right-handed. Any portion of the top rim of a conventional drinking glass or beverage cup that is contacted either purposefully or inadvertently by the fingers, thumb or palms of food preparation or service personnel potentially carrying a contagious pathogen presents a risk of transferring the pathogen to the mouth of a consumer by direct contact or by a beverage or other pourable foodstuff flowing over a contaminated portion of the dish or vessel prior to being ingested by the user.
The structural configuration and functionality of the present invention are readily differentiated from measuring cups used in cooking, from those of beverage serving pitchers having a singular, outwardly projecting pour spout from which users do not ordinarily drink, and from children's drinking cups having a removable lid with an upwardly or outwardly projecting drinking spout configured to avoid liquid spills during use by a toddler or young child.
Dishes or vessels such as drinking glasses and beverage cups are disclosed here that each comprise a continuous bottom and a contiguous, upwardly extending sidewall having a top rim, often circular, that is substantially level relative to the bottom and to an underlying support surface except that the top rim also comprises at least one recessed section having a width, depth and edge configuration sufficient to permit convenient drinking from the recessed section without incurring accidental spillage of a beverage. Such protection is desirably provided in combination with one or more structural elements or features that passively influence a user drinking from such a glass or cup to orient it so that the recessed rim portion is proximal to and appropriately aligned with mouth of a user when it is grasped by the user and raised upwardly toward a drinking position.
In one preferred embodiment of the invention, a beverage cup having a sidewall with a single fixed-position handle is desirably provided with two recessed rim sections that are circumferentially spaced apart from the fixed handle and are diametrically opposed from each other to accommodate convenient use by either left-handed or right-handed users.
In another preferred embodiment of the invention, a drinking glass having a top rim with at least one recessed rim section also embodies a sidewall configuration that is shaped so as to passively influence a user to grasp the glass comfortably and in such manner that a sidewall section with a recessed top edge is proximal to and naturally oriented toward the mouth of the user when the glass is lifted upwardly off an underlying support surface.
In another embodiment of the invention, the top rim of a beverage cup or soup bowl with or without fixed handles is provided with at least one, and preferably two or three, sidewall sections having recessed top edges that are circumferentially spaced around the top rim positioned to facilitate drinking or consuming a beverage or food from either of two opposed sides of the dish.
Articles made within the scope of the invention can selectively embody sidewalls having one or more sections that are vertical, inwardly or outwardly tapered, curvilinear, or a combination of those, provided that the subject article otherwise embodies the required elements of the invention as recited in the accompanying claims. The upwardly facing edge or surface portion of the sidewall section with a recessed top edge can lie inside the plane of a sidewall section of the subject dish or vessel but can also be made with a top edge portion that projects radially outward to a slight extent relative to the plane of the adjacent sidewall section(s), the radius of the top rim of the dish or vessel and/or the arcuate width of the recess.
As used in this disclosure, a “substantially level” top rim of a drinking glass or cup is generally understood to be one that is, within ordinary and customary manufacturing tolerances, substantially parallel to the bottom-most surface of the glass or cup when the glass or cup is sitting on an underlying support surface. As applied to stemware, however, the sidewall is contiguous with the bottom of the fluid-containing portion of the glass, which is in turn supported by a stem or pedestal above a base (most often circular) that is configured to sit on an underlying support surface, in which case the base is desirably “substantially level” with the top rim of the glass.
The reader should understand and appreciate that while the embodiments of the invention disclosed herein are primarily direct to glasses, cups and bowls having circular top rims and bottoms, the invention is not so limited and is similarly applicable to drinking glasses, cups and dishes wherein the top rim, the bottom, both the top rim and the bottom, one or more sidewall sections, or a stemware base are non-circular provided that the constituent elements of the invention as recited in the accompanying claims are present.
The subject invention is further described and shown in relation to the following drawing figures (not drawn to scale) in which:
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Although the accompanying drawing figures depict embodiments in which the dishes or vessels and their base support elements are generally circular, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading this disclosure that glasses or dishes having non-circular or elliptical cross-sections and non-circular bottoms or bases can also be made within the scope of the present invention. Other alterations and modifications of the invention will likewise become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading this specification in view of the accompanying drawings, and it is intended that the scope of the invention disclosed herein be limited only by the broadest interpretation of the appended claims to which the inventors or Applicant(s) are legally entitled.
