by Dan Feigelson
If, like many Americans (and Israelis), you eat breakfast cereals, then you’re accustomed to the cereal being sold in a box, inside of which is a sealed plastic bag containing the cereal. And you’re familiar with the problem of (a) opening the bag so that it tears along the seams and doesn’t rip open, thereby (i) allowing the cereal to pour nicely, (ii) avoiding cereal getting stuck between the bag and the box, and (iii) enabling the bag to be rolled closed, and (b) getting the bag to stay closed so that the cereal stays fresh.
Hence this piece in Wednesday’s New York Post caught my eye: it seems that, in the USA at least, Cheerios will henceforth be sold so that the bag inside the box is a Ziploc® bag that opens only partially, from one side, and is resealable. As the piece goes on to say,
“The Ziploc bag tech, called PantrySeal, was created to open just partway across the top of the bag, forming a pour spout. This can then be zipped right back up — no more half-folded cereal bags that inevitably unfurl — and eliminates the problem of cereal that goes stale well before its expiration date, as well as cutting down on clumsy spills.”
The piece then quotes several cereal eaters who explain how people have been asking for this sort of thing for years, even citing a recent survey that concluded that “90 percent of cereal consumers utilize clips, cereal containers and even clothespins in the name of keeping their favorite breakfast food fresh”.
Normal folks would probably respond, “Cool!” But I’m a patent practitioner, so what popped into MY head was, “Long-felt need!”. Putting cereal in a resealable bag inside the box is a classic example of how there’s been something missing from the marketplace that people would readily purchase if it existed, or in patent terms, an example of meeting a “long-felt need”, which under US jurisprudence (and Israel jurisprudence as well) is one of the indicia of an invention being non-obvious.
But long-felt need alone is usually not sufficient to prove non-obviousness, and so I wonder: will SC Johnson & Son (the owners of Ziploc) try to patent this arrangement and if so, what’s the hook to patentability? Johnson has patents on resealable bags (see, e.g. US 12534271), so the company knows not only how to use the patent system, but how to use vis-à-vis resealable bags. (I have been told, but have not verified, they’ve also registered the blue/red colored sealing stripe arrangement on some of their Ziploc bags as a trademark in an of itself.)
On the other hand, the use of reclosable bags for holding cereal is not new, as people have been putting cereal in reclosable bags for years (I myself have put cereal in a Ziploc bag when traveling), and cereal is also sold in stores in resealable bags, such as Malt-O-Meal’s “Fruity Dyno-Bites” (with OU kosher certification, no less), sold at Meijer stores throughout Michigan. It can be asserted – and I’m sure a patent examiner would assert – that the jump from that to putting the bag inside a standard cereal carton is an obvious step.
Maybe there’s something particular about the half-openable bag now being used with Cheerios that Johnson believes confers patentability. Or maybe they’re not seeking patent protection, and figure that the Ziploc brand is strong enough that merely indicating that Cheerios now come in a Ziploc® bag – a claim others won’t be able to make unless they do a deal with Johnson – will be sufficient.
It will be interesting to see if the use of reclosable bags inside the original cereal box is adopted throughout the industry in the USA. It will also be interesting to see if the practice makes it to Israel. A large percentage of the cereal brands sold here (like Cheerios) are Nestle brands that are still sold in the USA under the General Mills brand (Nestle being associated by US consumers with chocolate, not breakfast cereal). So it’s possible that Cheerios in resealable bags inside the box are coming to Israel, although I think most of the Nestle cereals sold here are manufactured in Europe rather than the USA. And of course I don’t know the details of the deal between Johnson/Ziploc and General Mills in the USA, such as if that extends to anywhere outside the USA.
Interestingly, according to the Israel PTO database, SC Johnson & Sons has no patents in force in Israel, and “Ziploc” is not a registered trademark here.
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