Jay Sorensen is an American inventor, real estate broker, [1] and entrepreneur best known for inventing the coffee cup sleeve in 1991, [2] and founding Java Jacket, a company manufacturing coffee cup sleeves, in 1993. [3]
Sorensen had the idea first in 1989, when he was taking his daughter to school and burnt his fingers due to his coffee, forcing him to put the hot coffee on his lap. [2] He later invented it in 1991, [2] and patented it in 1995. [4]
Sorensen formed Java Jacket in 1993 and it was an instant hit. [3]
Today, Java Jacket sells over one billion coffee cup sleeves a year. [2]
Starbucks had interest in the product from the beginning, but Sorensen did not accept the conditions of operating. [3]
So a patent war began between Java Jacket and Starbucks. Starbucks was eventually able to create a product like the Java Jacket. [3]
A cappuccino is an espresso-based coffee drink that is traditionally prepared with steamed milk foam (microfoam).
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an idea is unique enough either as a stand alone invention or as a significant improvement over the work of others, it can be patented. A patent, if granted, gives the inventor a proprietary interest in the patent over a specific period of time, which can be licensed for financial gain.
Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain.
Yoshiro Nakamatsu, also known as Dr. NakaMats, is a Japanese inventor. He regularly appears on Japanese talk shows demonstrating his inventions.
Jerome "Jerry" Hal Lemelson was an American engineer, inventor, and patent holder. Several of his inventions and works in the fields in which he patented have made possible, either wholly or in part, innovations like automated warehouses, industrial robots, cordless telephones, fax machines, videocassette recorders, camcorders, and the magnetic tape drive used in Sony's Walkman tape players. Lemelson's 605 patents made him one of the most prolific inventors in American history.
A zarf is a holder, usually of ornamental metal, for a coffee cup without a handle.
A coffee cup is a container, a cup, for serving coffee and coffee-based drinks. There are three major types: conventional cups used with saucers, mugs used without saucers, and disposable cups. Cups and mugs generally have a handle. Disposable paper cups used for take-out sometimes have fold-out handles, but are more often used with an insulating coffee cup sleeve.
A flat white is a coffee drink consisting of espresso with microfoam. It is comparable to a latte, but smaller in volume and with less microfoam, therefore having a higher proportion of coffee to milk, and milk that is more velvety in consistency – allowing the espresso to dominate the flavour, while being supported by the milk.
Walter Hunt was an American mechanical engineer. Through the course of his work he became known for being a prolific inventor. He got first involved with mechanical innovations in a linseed producing community in New York state that had flax mills. While in New York City to promote his inventions he got involved in inventing the streetcar gong that was used throughout the United States. This then led him to invent other useful items like the safety pin and sewing machine. He invented the precursor to the repeating rifle and fountain pen. About two dozen of his inventions are used today in basically the same form as he had patented them. In spite of his many useful innovative creations he never became wealthy since he sold off most of his patent rights to others at low prices with no future royalties. Others made millions of dollars from his safety pin device.
A paper cup is a disposable cup made out of paper and often lined or coated with plastic or wax to prevent liquid from leaking out or soaking through the paper. It may be made of recycled paper and is widely used around the world.
Keurig is a beverage brewing system for home and commercial use. The machines are manufactured by the American company Keurig Dr Pepper. The main Keurig products are: K-Cup pods, which are single-serve coffee containers; other beverage pods; and the proprietary machines that use these pods to make beverages.
Amalie Auguste Melitta Bentz, born Amalie Auguste Melitta Liebscher, was a German entrepreneur who invented the paper coffee filter brewing system in 1908. She founded the namesake company Melitta, which still operates under family control.
George Constant Louis Washington was a Belgian inventor and businessman. He is best remembered for his improvement of an early instant coffee process and for the company he founded to mass-produce it, the G. Washington Coffee Company.
Coffee cup sleeves, also known as coffee sleeves, are roughly cylindrical sleeves that fit tightly over handle-less paper coffee cups to insulate the drinker's hands from hot coffee. Coffee sleeves are typically made of textured paperboard, but can be found made of other materials. Coffee sleeves allow coffee houses, fast food restaurants, and other vendors to avoid double-cupping, the practice of using two nested paper cups for a single hot beverage. Some paper cup holders carry advertisements.
The United States provided many inventions in the time from the Colonial Period to the Gilded Age, which were achieved by inventors who were either native-born or naturalized citizens of the United States. Copyright protection secures a person's right to his or her first-to-invent claim of the original invention in question, highlighted in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution, which gives the following enumerated power to the United States Congress:
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
The Chemex Coffeemaker is a manual pour-over style glass coffeemaker, invented by Peter Schlumbohm in 1941, manufactured by the Chemex Corporation in Chicopee, Massachusetts.
Nestlé Nespresso S.A., trading as Nespresso, is an operating unit of the Nestlé Group, based in Lausanne, Switzerland. Nespresso machines brew espresso and coffee from coffee capsules, a type of pre-apportioned single-use container, or reusable capsules (pods), of ground coffee beans, sometimes with added flavorings. Once inserted into a machine, the capsules are pierced and processed, water is then forced against a heating element at high pressure meaning that only the quantity for a single cup is warmed. Nespresso is a premium price coffee, and by 2011 had annual sales in excess of 3 billion Swiss francs. The word Nespresso is a portmanteau of "Nestlé" and "Espresso", a common mechanic used across other Nestlé brands.
Pokito is the brand name of an ultra portable reusable cup that can be collapsed to a few centimetres when not in use and so can be stored easily in a pocket or purse. It was invented by the Canadian inventor Andrew Brooks.
William Noel Alsbrook, Sr. was an American inventor and combat fighter pilot with the 332nd Fighter Group's 99th Fighter Squadron, best known as the Tuskegee Airmen, "Red Tails," or "Schwartze Vogelmenschen" among enemy German pilots.