"Sealed Crustless" PB&J
In December 1999, two independent inventors, Len Kretchman and David Geske, were granted U.S. patent, "Sealed Crustless Sandwich" for a peanut butter sandwich that would have a long shelf life. The J.M. Smucker Co. bought the patent from the inventors and developed a commercial product based on the patent called Uncrustables. Smuckers then invested US$17 million in a new factory to produce the product. By 2005, sales of Uncrustables had grown to $60 million a year with a 20% per year growth rate.
Smuckers attempted to enforce their patent rights by sending out cease and desist letters to competitors, and by expanding their intellectual property coverage via the patenting of a machine to produce Uncrustables sandwiches in high volume. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, however, rejected the viability of the patent citing its similarity to existing processes such as that of fashioning ravioli or pie crust.
Read more about this topic: Peanut Butter And Jelly Sandwich
Famous quotes containing the word sealed:
“These things are not inscribed in tablets, not sealed in the folds of papyri, but you hear them clearly from the tongue in a free mouth.”
—Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.)