Compartment plates having themes and method for manufacturing and packaging the same

Abstract

According to one embodiment of the present invention, an arrangement of plates for receiving food is disclosed. The arrangement of plates comprises a plurality of nestable plates, wherein the plates within the plurality of nestable plates have an animal theme. Each of the plates having an animal theme include a main compartment depicting a primary attribute of an animal corresponding to the animal theme, and at least two independent wells adjacent to the main compartment. Each of the wells are shaped to depict a secondary attribute of the animal corresponding to the animal theme. The plurality of plates include a first plate depicting a first animal and a second plate depicting a second animal that is different from the first animal. The secondary attribute within the wells of said first plate is a first physical feature of the first animal and the secondary attribute within the wells of the second plate is a second physical feature of the second animal. The first physical feature is different from the second physical feature while the wells of the first and second plates are similarly shaped allowing the plurality of plates to be nestable. According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method of packaging an arrangement of plates is disclosed. The method of packaging an arrangement of plates comprises providing a plurality of plates that have a depiction associated with a common theme, selecting from the plurality of plates to form a first group of plates and a second group of plates, and packaging the first and second group of plates for commercial distribution. The plurality of plates including a number of different depictions, and the second group of plates containing plates with different depictions than the first group of plates. According to yet another embodiment of the present invention a case of plate packages is disclosed. The case of plate packages comprises a plurality of plate packages and a covering structure surrounding said plurality of plate packages. Each of the plate package includes a plurality of nestable plates and a transparent wrapping for enveloping the plurality of nestable plates. The plates within the plurality of nestable plates include different depictions associated with a common theme. Each of the plurality of nestable plates include a top plate that is at least partially visualized through said transparent wrapping. The top plates for the plurality of plate packages include plates with different depictions.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a divisional application of copending application Ser. No. 10 / 251,745, filed Sep. 19, 2002, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Design Patent Application Serial No. 29 / 141,202, now issued, entitled, “Plate Having Condiment Wells,” which was filed on May 1, 2001. The disclosures of each of the foregoing applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention generally relates to food or beverage containing devices and, more particularly, to the arrangement and manufacture of compartment plates having themes. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Plates having compartments are used for holding food. Often, a main compartment is designed to hold a main dish whereas the other compartment, or wells, are used to hold sides, condiments, or both. Prior art disposable plates have had various designs or patterns printed thereon, but do not integrate the various c...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008] The arrangements of plates having themes, the methods for packaging plates having themes, and the cases of plates having themes according to the above-summarized embodiments of the present invention, as well as those set-forth in the following description, have enjoyed wide-spread commercial success in the retail marketplace due to the variety and collectability of the theme plates in a package. In particular, the Assignee of the present invention has experienced substantially commercial success in the last several months selling plates corresponding to an animal theme under its ZOO PALS trademark. Currently, plates being sold under the ZOO PALS trademark include fifty-one different animal depictions corresponding to a common animal theme, and are commercially available in packages of twenty-four (24) plates, wherein each package of twenty-four plates includes approximately eight (8) different animal depictions. The ZOO PALS™ plates include a main compartment depicting a primary attribute of a particular animal corresponding to the animal theme and two independent wells adjacent to the main compartment, each located and shaped to depict a secondary attribute of that particular animal. Cases containing several independently wrapped ZOO PALS™ plate packages have contributed to the commercial success by providing a substantial variety of animals in the plate packages of each case received by a certain retail customer, including the use of different animals on the top plates of the plate packages which can be visually recognized by consumers.

Problems solved by technology

Prior art disposable plates have had various designs or patterns printed thereon, but do not integrate the various compartments into the printed design or pattern.

The prior art does not address the situation where the number of designs per collection exceeds the total number of plates in a retail package and how to widely disseminate all of the designs in the collection in the market place.

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