US 2,003,172,813 · Filed 2003-03-06

The Single-Serve Coffee Pod Patent That Spawned a Billion-Dollar Industry

Imagine a tiny cup filled with ground coffee and special mesh filters inside that lets hot water flow through evenly. The patent describes exactly how water gets distributed across the grounds and how the brewed coffee flows out the bottom without letting grounds escape — basically the blueprint for modern coffee pods.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a cartridge design for single-serving beverages with two key internal pieces: a top mesh that spreads water evenly across ground coffee, and a bottom mesh that collects the brewed liquid and funnels it out through the cartridge's base. Both meshes have small recesses that allow a piercing needle to puncture the cartridge safely without damaging the filters themselves. What's protected is this specific arrangement of water distribution and collection with the recessed piercing zones.

Why it matters

This patent describes the core engineering that makes single-serve coffee cartridges work reliably at scale. The dual-mesh approach solved a critical problem: getting water to saturate grounds evenly while preventing grounds from clogging the outlet. Once patents like this were filed, companies could design compatible pod systems, which created an enormous aftermarket for replacement cartridges. The design fundamentals remain central to how modern single-serve coffee systems operate.

Real-world use

Every time you pop a coffee pod into your machine and it pierces the top and bottom, you're using this exact geometry — the mesh layers spread that hot water across your grounds and guide the brewed coffee down and out without spillage.

Original USPTO abstract

A cartridge containing a single serving of a particulate substance extractable by means of water for preparing a beverage, preferably an espresso coffee beverage is disclosed. Between the bottom of the cartridge and the particulate substance as well as between the particulate substance and the cover of the cartridge, in each case a fluid director member is provided, having a plurality of small openings. The one close to the cover serves as a water distribution member for distributing the water, fed into the cartridge through a central opening pierced therein, evenly over the particulate substance, and the one close to the bottom serves as a beverage collection member to lead the beverage to a central opening pierced into the bottom of the cartridge. Both director members are provided with a recess directed towards the interior of the cartridge, allowing the penetration of a piercing member without damage to the director members.

Patent details

Publication number: US 2,003,172,813
Filing date: 2003-03-06
Grant date: Application — not yet granted
Assignee: Rene Schifferle
Inventor(s): SCHIFFERLE RENE
CPC class: A47J31/0673

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