Coffee Cache

The single-serving coffee maker has to rank fairly high on the list of office engineering marvels. After all, who doesn’t feel better knowing that a cup of Joe is just 30 seconds away when they’re working late on a project? It might be a little watery, but it works in a pinch.

According to lawsuit recently filed at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, however, one particularly well known purveyor of single-serving technology is having trouble getting their innovations recognized by the government. Reading, Mass.-based Keurig, Inc. filed suit on Dec. 11 against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, claiming officials there had wrongly rejected a patent application on the company’s K-Cup coffee filter cartridges.