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:
Mar. 04, 1986
Filed:
Sep. 04, 1984
Martin J Berger, Dobbs Ferry, NY (US);
Sheldon P Apsell, Newton, MA (US);
PepsiCo Inc., Purchase, NY (US);
Abstract
An arrangement for conducting an on-the-cup promotion in which promotional prize information is encoded onto each soft drink cup with an optically machine-readable code. The code is used with the promotion to identify whether a customer has won any of the different prizes available. In order to provide the needed variation and the completely random distribution of prizes needed for a fair game, each individual cup is separately encoded as it is being manufactured by a computer controlled printing station directly preceding a cup-forming machine. All of the necessary information on the number or prizes, the frequency of occurrence of each prize, and a program to randomize that frequency is placed in the computer software. A scanner at the point of sale scans the code, signals whether the cup is a prize winner or not, and delivers a printed ticket notifying winners of their prizes and how to redeem them.