The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 25, 2025
Filed:
Jul. 23, 2021
The Coca-cola Company, Atlanta, GA (US);
Joshua Casey Schwarber, Decatur, GA (US);
Allen Lineberry, Liberty, NC (US);
Benjamin John Kingston, Suwanee, GA (US);
David Carrewyn, Atlanta, GA (US);
Matthew Baker, Atlanta, GA (US);
Axel Kling, Newnan, GA (US);
Patrick Etesse, Brussels, BE;
THE COCA-COLA COMPANY, Atlanta, GA (US);
Abstract
A vessel is assigned a unique vessel identifier (). Before or after the vessel is filled, the vessel identifier is encoded into a machine-readable code that is printed or etched onto the vessel (). The code may have the property that it can be quickly read by a scanner from a variety of different angles and vessel orientations. When the vessel is sold to a user, the user may scan the machine-readable code (or a different code placed on a label associated with the vessel) using a smartphone (), and the unique vessel identifier is linked to a user account associated with the user (). Later, when the user places the empty vessel in the recycling stream, a scanner or camera placed in the recycling facility scans or captures the machine-readable code on the vessel and extracts the vessel identifier from the code ().