McDonald's puts patent on sandwiches

McDonald's puts patent on sandwiches
Tuesday, November 21, 2006

McDonald's wants to own the rights to how a sandwich is made.

The fast-food chain has applied for a patent relating to the 'method and apparatus' used to prepare the snack.

The burger company says owning the 'intellectual property rights' would help its hot deli sandwiches look and taste the same at all of its restaurants.

It also wants to cut down on the time needed to put together a sandwich, thought to have been dreamt up by the Earl of Sandwich in 1762.

The 55-page patent, which has been filed in the US and Europe, covers the 'simultaneous toasting of a bread component'.

Garnishes of lettuce, onions and tomatoes, as well as salt, pepper and ketchup, are inserted into a cavity in a 'sandwich delivery tool'.

The 'bread component' is placed over the cavity and the assembly tool is inverted to tip out the contents. Finally, the filling is placed in the 'bread component'.

It explains: 'Often the sandwich filling is the source of the name of the sandwich; for example, ham sandwich.'

Lawrence Smith-Higgins, of the UK Patent Office, said: 'McDonald's or anyone else cannot get retrospective exclusive rights to making a sandwich.

'They might have a novel device, but it could be quite easy for someone to make a sandwich in a similar way without infringing their claims.'

McDonald's said: 'These applications are not intended to prevent anyone from using previous methods for making sandwiches.'

It's either this story or the China jails porn site operator for life story. I decided this one is more amusing :). Oh what the hey, let's blog both!

Porn Site Operator Jailed in China
The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 22, 2006; 12:11 PM


BEIJING -- The creator of China's largest pornographic Web site was jailed for life on Wednesday, state media reported.

Xinhua News Agency said judges at the Taiyuan Intermediate People's Court in Shanxi province gave the life sentence to Chen Hui and handed down terms of 13 months to 10 years to eight others after they were convicted of profiting from pornographic dissemination.

Chen, 28, and his accomplices started the Qingseliuyuetian (Pornographic Summer) Web site in 2004, and opened a further three porn Web sites, attracting more than 600,000 users.

Xinhua reported that police said it was difficult to know the exact amount of profits the Web site earned. Police found about 200,000 yuan ($25,000) in the bank accounts of the nine.

When the site was closed in October last year, it contained more than 9 million pornographic images and articles, the police said.

China has the world's second-largest population of Internet users after the United States, with more than 123 million people online.

The government encourages Internet use for education and business, but strictly controls content and tries to block access to material deemed pornographic or subversive.

The guy seems like such a small time; he probably just pissed off the wrong guy. Poor fool.