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  Free low popcorn funnel apparatusThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20080075815. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001]1. Field of the Invention [0002]The present invention relates to containers for receiving popped popcorn for individual consumption. [0003]2. Description of the Prior Art [0004]Popcorn is a popular snack at movies, theatres, amusement parks and other places of entertainment. The product is most tasteful when flavored by melted butter or other types of flavoring oils. Oil and butter render the popped kernels greasy to the touch and require excess use of napkins, tissue and the like. It has been long been a dilemma to the movie theatre operator that the profit generated from the demand for popcorn is often times offset to a great extent by the propensity for patrons to drop greasy popcorn on the seating upholstery, carpet or other floor covering and/or to wipe their greasy fingers on the arm rests or seats. [0005]This then leads to the need to, when furnishing a theatre, giving attention to stain resistant upholstery and grease resistant floor coverings. This, and removal of greasy stains and fingerprints from the upholstery, adds to the expense of equipping and maintaining a movie theatre. Greasy or even unflavored popcorn on the floor can result in customers stepping on it, particularly in the darkened theatre, resulting in a slip and fall incident leading to a painful injury to the customer and liability to the theatre operator, all adding to the expense of operation and driving up insurance premiums. [0006]Popcorn is often sold in an unbuttered state with the customer having ready access to the condiment stand where an abundant supply of melted butter or flavoring oil is available to be dispensed onto the hot popcorn to permeate down through the popped kernels to the bottom of the popcorn container. Juxtaposed the flavoring oil dispenser is typically a paper napkin dispenser with an abundant supply of napkins to encourage the customers to make ready use thereof for wiping of his or her fingers after each helping of the flavored popcorn. The napkins are often taken in abundance and the excess or soiled napkins promptly wadded up and discarded on the floor adjacent the customers seat thus leaving a plentiful collection of napkins at the end of the feature movie to be collected by the cleaning crew during the intermission. This is not only wasteful of the napkins but adds to the cost of clean up. [0007]From the foregoing, it is clear that a need exists for serving of butter flavored popcorn without the necessity of the consumer handling the individual popped and flavored kernels. In recognition of this need, numerous different proposals have been made in effort to solve the problem. One such proposal is a funnel constructed of paper and formed on its base with radially inwardly projecting, upwardly inclined crush tabs to permit engagement of the funnel with a top bead of a popcorn container. The funnel is then formed with a conically shaped circumferentially continuous wall tapering down to a reduced in diameter restrictive opening to constrict flow of the popcorn and to cause it to jam up at the opening to restrict free flow of the kernels themselves. A device of this patent is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,431,415 to Schreiber. While of benefit for its intended purposes, devices of this type suffer the shortcoming that as the popped kernels jam up at the outlet of the funnel the user is required to, while holding the container elevated, shake and jiggle the popcorn container in effort to induce release of even limited numbers of popped kernels. Such an arrangement is inconvenient for the customer sitting in a quiet crowded movie theatre faced with the prospect of elevating the container over his or her head and in the line of sight of viewers sitting behind, while he or she jiggles and shakes the container in an inverted orientation in effort to dispense the popcorn at what can seem like an excruciating slow rate of flow. Such inconvenience and tendency to draw unwanted attention to the consuming customer would discourage use by the customers even if the product were made available commercially. [0008]Other efforts to solve the problem propose use of popcorn bags to be held open by a funnel and sleeve arrangement to dispense popcorn therefrom. A device of this type is shown in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0139085 to Clark. Such devices are expensive to manufacture and awkward to use, particularly in the diminished lighting often employed in movie theatres. [0009]A dilemma thus far has been successfully and economically attaching a funnel cap in a releasable manner to a popcorn container and avoiding the adverse consequences of restricting free flow of popcorn kernels in such a manner as to discourage use by the purchasing public. It is believed that standard popcorn kernels have a maximum width of about 3/4 of an inch and a length of a bout 1 inch. Given the fact that conventional popcorn containers typically have a circular, square or rectangular cross section of about 4 inches or greater in transverse dimension for effective capping of the container and directing of popcorn flow in an efficient, convenient and economical manner, a practical solution would envision a funnel apparatus which is convenient to mount and which would incorporate a conical or pyramidal shaped funnel wall tapering upwardly to a fairly robust outlet defining a mouth having a cross sectional area of about 1.8 square inches or greater for egress or the popcorn kernels. I have discovered that a cross sectional dimension greater than 11/2 inches and preferably about 13/4 to 2 inches will suffice in inducing free flow of popcorn without excessive shaking or jiggling. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0010]The popcorn container funnel of the present invention is characterized by a retainer flange to fit about the open end of a popcorn container to releasably attach to the container and a funnel converging to a larger mouth outlet for free flow of popcorn. The funnel includes an axially projecting funnel wall narrowing in the distal direction inwardly from its opposite sides to terminate in a wide delivery mouth such that popped popcorn kernels from the container will have free flow to such mouth for consumption by the user. [0011]In some embodiments, the cap includes a retainer flange configured with peripheral, radially inwardly projecting bearing elements which frictionally fit over the marginal bead of the container to hold the cap in place. In other instances, the retaining flange may be split to adjust to different diameters or may even include an elastic band or the like to draw it closed into a mounting arrangement. [0012]Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate, by way of example, the features of the invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0013]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a popcorn container cap apparatus embodying the funnel apparatus of the present invention; [0014]FIG. 2 is an end view of the cap apparatus shown in FIG. 1; [0015]FIG. 3 is a partial front view of a cap apparatus shown in FIG. 1; [0016]FIG. 4 is a partial longitudinal is a sectional view, in enlarge scale, taken along the line 4-4 of FIG. 3; [0017]FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view, taken along the line 5-5 of FIG. 4; DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0018]Referring to FIGS. 1-5, the popcorn container funnel apparatus of the present invention includes, generally, a funnel apparatus 21 constructed to releasably connect to a popcorn container 23 and formed with a peripheral annular retainer flange 25 and a longitudinally projecting spout 27 converging into mouth 31 having an opening greater than 11/2 inches in diameter for free flow of popcorn. [0019]Popcorn containers 23 come in all different sizes and shapes, often with self supporting walls defining an upwardly facing opening for access to the popcorn. It is this style of container to which the cap apparatus of this invention is attached. There are the usual small, medium, large caps or containers, sometimes cylindrical, square or rectangular in horizontal cross section. Thus, the cap apparatus 21 comes in different sizes and shapes for accommodating different size and configurations of containers. Typically, the walls of such containers are somewhat flexible to thus permit a relatively rigid cap to snap fit thereover. In other instances, the containers may be more rigid the retainer rings of the caps may be more flexible or even of an adjustable circumference as explained below. [0020]Popcorn containers 23 are conventionally constructed of stiff waxed or coated paper or plastic and are typically configured at their upward extremity with radially outwardly turned circumferential beads 37 (FIG. 4). The funnel apparatus 21, in one embodiment, is formed with the retainer flange 25 configured about the interior thereof with a plurality of radially inwardly projecting circumferentially spaced cam like teeth defining respective bearing elements formed on their radially inward sides with radially outwardly and downwardly inclined bearing surfaces 41 to cooperate in combination to form an outline of a frusto conically shaped envelope to be frictionally received over the bead 37 to nest such bead in the annular groove 43 at the top of the respective teeth. Continue reading... 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