Volume IV

Issue : 20: November 30, 2006

• U.S. Court of Appeals Denies Claim under CAN SPAM Act
• California Supreme Court Rules Online Republishers not Liable for Third Party Postings
• Movie Studios Bring Action over Movies on iPods
• Craigslist Receives Favourable Ruling on Housing Listings
• Nova Scotias New Privacy Legislation to Counter U.S. Patriot Act
• Zillow.com Accused of Racial Discrimination When Valuing Homes
• Microsoft Catches Phishers
• The Big Three Search Engines Collaborate with Sitemaps Project
• The McDonalds Sandwich Patent
• Supreme Court of Canada Recognizes the Right to Enforce a Foreign Non Monetary Judgment

Home > Volume IV > Issue 20: November 30, 2006 > The McDonalds Sandwich Patent

The McDonalds Sandwich Patent

McDonald’s recently filed a patent application seeking the intellectual property rights on how to make a hot deli sandwich. The fast food giant filed a 55-page patent application in the U.S. and Europe that covered the ‘simultaneous toasting of a bread component.’ McDonald’s hot deli sandwich making process is as follows:

1. Insert lettuce, onion, tomato, salt, pepper and ketchup into the cavity of a ‘sandwich delivery tool’;
2. Place the bread component over the cavity;
3. Invert the delivery tool tipping out its contents; and
4. Place the contents into the bread component.

McDonald’s says owning the intellectual property rights will assist in making their hot deli sandwiches universally identical in taste and appearance. The U.K. patent office says nobody, including McDonald’s, can attain retrospective rights for making a sandwich. However, the franchise asserts the patent application is not intended to prevent anyone from using ‘previous methods of making sandwiches.’

For additional information, visit:

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2006/11/28/mcdonalds-wants-to-patent-how-it-makes-a-sandwich/