Patent ID: 9560835
Date: 2017-02-07
CPC Classifications: A01K,B65B

Claim:
1. A method for providing liquid products for animal consumption comprising: providing a gusseted pouch made of resilient leak proof packaging film, said gusseted pouch having a relatively collapsed closed-mode for storing and transporting a liquid product and an upright open-mode for serving the liquid product to an animal, whereby the open gusseted pouch conforms to a bowl shape in said open mode; wherein said gusseted pouch is formed from a unitary package blank of liquid packaging film material, and whereby said gusseted pouch comprises an upper edge having at least one opening mechanism, a pair of sealed opposite parallel pouch side edges, each side edge adjoining a forward and rear pair of partially sealed lower gusseted panel areas at both opposite lower corners of the gusseted pouch, wherein said partially sealed lower gusseted opposite panel areas are configured to facilitate conformance to a bowl shape after the gusseted pouch is opened; said gusseted pouch having a unitary bottom gusset panel which provides a lower front edge to a vertically oriented pouch, an inner bottom panel which is folded up in the closed-mode pouch condition and an opposite rear lower bottom edge generally parallel to said front lower edge, and which bottom panel readily opens to a bowl shape configuration when the product is opened to a liquid product serving mode, wherein the gusseted pouch has a collar portion which may be folded downwardly upon the sides of an open gusseted pouch to further facilitate and stabilize a bowl shape when serving liquid products to animals; filling the gusseted pouch with a liquid product; sealing the gusseted pouch to provide a filled package in said closed-mode; transporting a filled and sealed gusseted pouch in a collapsed closed-mode thereby providing a portable and storable liquid product for animals; opening the gusseted pouch and providing access to liquid contents therein; forming the opened gusseted pouch into a bowl shape for serving the liquid product therein; and folding downwardly said collar portion of the open gusseted pouch to reinforce conformance to a bowl shape when the gusseted pouch is in its open-mode.