Brewing Material Container For A Beverage Brewer

Patent No. US12342955 (titled "Brewing Material Container For A Beverage Brewer") was filed by Adrian Rivera Maynez Enterprises Inc on Oct 29, 2021.

’955 is related to the field of beverage brewing, specifically accessories for single-serve beverage brewers. The patent addresses the problem that many brewers are designed for proprietary cartridges, leading to waste and limiting users to specific beverage options. The background highlights the need for a reusable container that can accommodate various brewing materials and work with existing brewing machines, particularly those with multiple injection nozzles.

The underlying idea behind ’955 is to create a reusable brewing material container that can be used in single-serve beverage brewers designed for disposable cartridges. This container allows users to brew beverages from loose grounds or pods, offering greater flexibility and reducing waste. The key inventive insight is to design a container with multiple lid openings to accommodate brewers with multiple injection nozzles, along with a mechanism to selectively block unused openings.

The claims of ’955 focus on a brewing material container comprising a receptacle and a lid. The receptacle has a base and sidewall, while the lid has multiple openings to receive injection nozzles. Crucially, the container includes a selective obstruction to block unused lid openings. The base is spaced from the sidewall's bottom edge to accommodate the brewer's outflow nozzle, preventing interference.

In practice, the invention allows a user to fill the receptacle with their choice of brewing material, close the lid, and place the container in the brewer. If the brewer has fewer injection nozzles than lid openings, the user can employ the selective obstruction, such as plugs or valves, to block the unused openings, preventing splashing. The brewed beverage then flows out through openings in the base or sidewall, bypassing the brewer's outflow needle.

This design differentiates itself from prior approaches by offering a universal adapter for brewers with multiple injection nozzles. Prior solutions often focused on adapting single-serve brewers for specific pod types. By providing a container with multiple lid openings and a selective obstruction mechanism, ’955 enables compatibility with a wider range of brewers and brewing materials, promoting reusability and reducing reliance on proprietary cartridges. The spacing between the base and sidewall is also a key differentiator, ensuring proper function with brewers that have outflow needles.

How does this patent fit in bigger picture?

Technical landscape at the time

In the early 2020s when ’451 was filed, single-serve beverage brewers were common, at a time when systems commonly relied on pre-packaged pods or cartridges rather than loose grounds. Hardware or software constraints made it non-trivial to design a reusable container compatible with existing brewers, especially those with multiple injection nozzles.

Novelty and Inventive Step

The examiner allowed the claims after an examiner's amendment. The amendment modified claim 20 by deleting the phrase "wherein the recessed isolation means is defined by a portion of the holding means in which the base means and the sidewall means are recessed inward toward an interior of the holding means" and replacing it with "wherein the holding means includes recessed isolation means for receiving an outflow nozzle of the beverage brewer and for isolating the outflow nozzle from the interior of the holding means, wherein the recessed isolation".

Claims

This patent contains 28 claims, with claims 1 and 18 being independent. The independent claims are directed to a brewing material container for a beverage brewer, including a receptacle/holding means and a lid/covering means with specific features like openings, obstructions, and spacing. The dependent claims generally elaborate on the specific structures, materials, or configurations of the elements described in the independent claims, such as the selective obstruction, dispersion features, and fluid flow mechanisms.

Key Claim Terms New

Definitions of key terms used in the patent claims.

Term (Source)	Support for Specification	Interpretation
Brewing material (Claim 1, Claim 18)	“Depending on the particular embodiment or the needs of the user, the brewing material can be sealed in a pod, can be loosely placed in a pouch made of water-permeable material, or can be placed directly into the beverage brewing container. The brewing material can be beverage brewing material, or any other material, ground or otherwise, that can be used to produce a beverage by flowing a liquid through it.”	Any material, ground or otherwise, that can be used to produce a beverage by flowing a liquid through it.
Lid openings (Claim 1)	“The lid is configured to engage with the open end of the sidewall to at least partially cover the open end. The lid includes a number of lid openings, for example five lid openings, configured to receive a corresponding respective number of injection nozzles of the beverage brewer.”	Openings in the lid configured to receive injection nozzles of the beverage brewer.
Outflow nozzle (Claim 1, Claim 18)	“The base of the receptacle has an interior surface and an exterior surface and is configured to avoid contact with the needle-like structure of the beverage brewer. The at least one sidewall extends upward from the interior surface of the base and is also configured to avoid contact with the needle-like structure. Because contact with the needle-like structure of the beverage brewer is avoided, the outflow substantially avoids the needle-like structure, which would normally accept the outflow.”	A nozzle of the beverage brewer that outputs brewed beverage.
Receptacle opening (Claim 1)	“The receptacle includes a passageway, a base, and at least one sidewall. The passageway, for example, can be arranged in the base of the receptacle, but can be arranged in the sidewall instead, or in addition if more than one passageway is advantageous. The passageway provides fluid communication between an interior of the receptacle and the brewing chamber, that is, allows the brewed beverage to flow from the container into the brewing chamber of the beverage brewer.”	An opening in the base or sidewall of the receptacle that allows fluid to flow from the inside to the outside of the receptacle.
Selective obstruction (Claim 1)	“The brewing material container also includes a selective obstruction. The selective obstruction can include, for example, a plug configured to be removably coupled to a selected lid opening to prevent fluid communication through the selected lid opening. As another example, the selective obstruction can include a valve configured to be coupled to a selected lid opening to control fluid communication through the selected lid opening.”	A component configured to selectively block one or more of the lid openings.

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US12342955

ADRIAN RIVERA MAYNEZ ENTERPRISES INC

Application Number: US17514451
Filing Date: Oct 29, 2021
Status: Granted
Expiry Date: Jan 27, 2043
External Links: Slate, USPTO, Google Patents

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