US 6,645,537 · Granted 2003-11-11

The K-Cup Pod Patent That Brews a Billion-Dollar Empire

Imagine a tiny, self-contained coffee cup that already has the grounds inside, sealed and ready to go. You just pop it into a machine, hot water gets injected from the top, it filters down through the coffee, and the brewed drink flows out the bottom into your mug. This patent locks down that whole clever design.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a sealed cartridge with a cup-shaped container divided into two chambers by a filter. The top has a piercable cover that lets hot water be injected into the first chamber (where the coffee or tea grounds sit), while the bottom has another piercable opening for the filtered beverage to exit into the second chamber and out of the cartridge. The tapered side walls with flutes are part of the protected structure that gives the cartridge its strength and shape.

Why it matters

This patent became the foundation of Keurig's K-Cup single-serve pod system, which transformed home coffee brewing from a ritual of measuring and cleaning into a one-button convenience play. By locking down the cartridge design itself—not just the machine—Keurig created a proprietary ecosystem where pod sales became a recurring revenue stream. The patent's expiration has since opened the door to third-party pod makers, but for years it gave Keurig a powerful legal moat around an entirely new category.

Real-world use

Every time someone drops a K-Cup pod into a Keurig machine and watches it brew in 60 seconds, they're using the exact geometry and compartment design this patent protects.

Original USPTO abstract

A beverage filter cartridge includes a cup-shaped outer container with a bottom and a side wall extending upwardly from the bottom wall to a circular rim surrounding an upper opening. The side wall has an upper section extending downwardly from the rim to an intermediate section, and a tapered lower section configured to provide a plurality of circumferentially spaced flutes extending downwardly from the intermediate section to the bottom wall. A filter element subdivides the interior of the container into first and second chambers. A beverage medium is stored in the first chamber. A cover is joined to the side wall at the rim to close the upper opening. The cover is yieldably piercable to accommodate an injection of liquid into the first chamber for combination with the beverage medium to produce a beverage. The filter element is permeable to accommodate a flow of the beverage from the first chamber into the second chamber, and the bottom wall is yieldably piercable to accommodate an outflow of the beverage from the second chamber to the exterior of the cartridge.

Patent details

Publication number: US 6,645,537
Filing date: 2001-02-13
Grant date: 2003-11-11
Assignee: Keurig, Incorporated
Inventor(s): SWEENEY RICHARD, LAZARIS NICHOLAS G., BEAULIEU RODERICK H., BUCUZZO WILLIAM P.
CPC class: B65D85/8061

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