US 6,121,593 · Granted 2000-09-19

The Patent for Cooking and Chilling in One Box, Controlled from Anywhere

Imagine a kitchen appliance that combines a refrigerator and microwave oven in one chamber, letting you cool or heat food in the same space. The real trick: you can turn it on and off from anywhere in the world using your phone or the internet, so dinner could be ready when you walk in the door.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a self-contained appliance that combines refrigeration and cooking functions within a single enclosed chamber, along with the remote control system that allows an operator to actuate the heating and cooling elements via telephone or internet connection from distant locations. What's protected is both the integrated design of the dual-function chamber and the mechanism by which remote signals trigger the heating or refrigeration to begin.

Why it matters

This patent represents an early vision of connected home appliances—the idea that your kitchen devices could respond to commands from anywhere in the world. Filed in 1998 and granted in 2000, it anticipated the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) by more than a decade, before most households had broadband or smartphones. The concept of remote-triggered cooking and cooling in one device was speculative then, but it laid intellectual property groundwork for the connected kitchen appliances that manufacturers eventually pursued.

Real-world use

Today, similar remote-control kitchen concepts appear in smart ovens and connected refrigerators that let you check temperatures or start cooking from your phone while you're still at work or traveling.

Original USPTO abstract

A self-contained refrigerator and oven, for refrigerating and cooking food in the same enclosed chamber, which can be actuated by the operator from a variety of remote locations around the world via telephone or the internet. The heating element may be a microwave unit and the refrigerating means may be a thermoelectric heat pump.

Patent details

Publication number: US 6,121,593
Filing date: 1998-08-19
Grant date: 2000-09-19
Assignee: Duck Creek Energy, Inc.
Inventor(s): MANSBERY; DAVID I., LANDRY; KENNETH D.
CPC class: H05B6/6435

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