Bottles, cans, and other storage structures with secondary storage compartments such as cap containers

Abstract

A bottle is provided with a cap. The cap includes a container that may be externally opened while the cap seals material inside the bottle. Thus, a user may retrieve items from inside the cap (e.g., dietary supplements or candy such as mini M&Ms) before opening the bottle (by removing the cap) and using the material inside of the bottle (e.g., a water or a soft drink).

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60 / 643,991, filed on Jan. 13, 2005 and entitled “Bottle Cap with Container” (Docket No. JDM / 009 PROV) and Provisional Patent Application No. 60 / 718,831 filed on Sep. 19, 2005 and entitled “Bottles, Cans, and Other Storage Structures Having Secondary Storage Compartments” (Docket No. JDM / 009 PROV2) which are both hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates to bottles, cans, and other types of storage structures. [0003]FIG. 1 shows traditional bottle 100 that includes bottle housing 110, bottle cap portion 120, and bottle cap portion 130. Bottle cap portion 120 and bottle cap portion 130 are removably attached such that a twist of bottle cap portion 120 removes bottle cap portion 120 from bottle cap portion 130 so long as bottle cap portion 130 is anchored to traditional bottle 100. Tradition...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007] A cap container may open and close from the exterior of the cap. Thus, a user can open a cap's container without having to remove that cap from a bottle. An additional benefit of having the ability to open the cap's container from the external of the bottle is that opening the cap's container is not very messy—any liquid stored in the primary storage container (e.g., the bottle's housing) may not exit the bottle when the bottle cap container is opened. If the bottle cap has never been removed from the bottle (after it was attached to the bottle during manufacturing), then the seal between the cap and the container may not be disturbed when the container is externally opened. Thus, none of the material stored in the bottle, if any, can escape when the external container is opened. Additionally, none of the primary material stored in the bottle may start to spoil as no air may come into contact with the primary material when the bottle cap container is opened.

[0008] A cap container may open and close from the interior of the cap (e.g., a portion of the cap that extends into a bottle when used to seal that bottle). Such a cap container may provide, among many things, security for those objects stored in the cap's container. For example, a prize may be stored in the caps container. Prizes having different rarity may be distributed into the cap containers such that prizes having different rarity have different odds of being located in any particular cap container. To help prevent someone from searching bottles, the cap container may be provided such that the bottle may have to be opened, allowing the primary material to be accessed, in order to retrieve the contents of the container. Additionally, abricating the cap's container in a non transparent color (e.g., a black) may keep the identity / characteristics of the prize hidden until the cap's container is opened.

[0009] A cap's container may be provided such that the cap's container extends into the bottle, protrudes from the mouth of the bottle (e.g., substantially protrudes from the mouth of the bottle), or both. The cap's container can extend down over the mouth of a bottle on the exterior side of the mouth. The cap's container can take on any form such as, for example that of an action figure, sports figure, celebrity figure, or other shape. For example, a bottle cap container may be produced to promote a movie. The cap container can take the form of the shape of a character in the movie and extend down into the bottle (or protrude out from the mouth of the bottle). If extending into the interior of the bottle, the shape of may not be recognizable until the bottle is opened because of the primary material stored in the bottle. Thus, not only may secondary objects be stored in the container (e.g., a prize or candy), but the container itself may be collectible and may provide improve the whimsicle and festive nature of a capped bottle.

Problems solved by technology

Such chocolate is prone to melting.

Yet, such chocolate may not melt if stored with a soda in a refrigerated soda bottle dispensing machine.

Thus, none of the material stored in the bottle, if any, can escape when the external container is opened.

Images