They all sell water bottles!
Pepsi and Coke only have 1 patent application in the biodegradable packaging sector and neither application is related to compostable/biodegradable beverage containers. Nestle has 7 documents in the sector but they haven’t had a patent document since 2018. Nestle is selling most of its water brands including Deer Park, Ozarka, Ice Mountain, Zephyrhills, and Arrowhead but it is retaining control of its premium water brands. The estimated value of the sale is approximately $5 billion! Clearly, there is a significant interest and value in water bottle brands but surprisingly minimal patent activity from the major companies.
These major water bottle companies are under continuous scrutiny to lower their environmental impact, so they should be on a constant lookout for innovative bottling solutions and related intellectual property. Drop Water’s patent for an innovative compostable water bottle could be the answer to the major water bottle companies’ prayers.
Drop Water was issued its first patent in the biodegradable packaging sector for a compostable single-use beverage container. This is great news for a company that already has a contract with the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG)! SFO banned the sale of plastic bottled water from its grounds and Drop Water is one of the alternative solutions that SFO has allowed to be sold in its terminals.
Important to note that although there does not appear to be a continuation application for the compostable beverage container, there is a PCT application (PCT/US16/64878) that claims the benefit of the US application. This indicates that Drop Water is eyeing the global market and could be a prime acquisition target for major producers of water bottles (i.e. Coke, Pepsi, and Nestle). The pressure of minimizing environmental impact will only increase over time, so the value of Drop Water’s compostable container will only go up.
Take a look at the unique Patent Radian® to visualize some of the documents owned by Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Nestle in the biodegradable sector:
Other Interesting News:
You won’t find any significant information about Enviroluv on the web besides the fact that it is an Amazon seller and sells BeeBagz™ and BulkBagz™ on its website. However, the inventor on the Enviroluv patent is none other than Kristi MacDonald, the founder of Enviroluv, BeeBAGZ and BulkBAGZ! Enviroluv, a Canadian company, could be looking to get a foothold in the US biodegradable packaging patent sector as it pursues its first US patent.
Plantic Technologies, an Australian subsidiary of Kuraray, is pursuing a patent for a starch and polyvinyl alcohol composition for containers. Recently, Kuraray Poval, a technology leader for polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH), joined Kuraray’s EVAL and Plantic business units and joined the CEFLEX consortium. Together they appear to be working on creating a sustainable circular economy and Plantic’s composition could be a major factor in future success.