Abstract:
A system and method are provided for a product memento that is detachable from a product such as a bottle. The memento provides a convenient means of saving and storing product information that helps the user find and purchase an equivalent bottle of the desired product at a later date. The bottle memento system comprises a wine bottle (for example), a label affixed to the wine bottle, and a detachable memento affixed overlying the wine bottle. The memento is used to identify the wine bottle. In some aspects the memento is a detachable portion of the label. In other aspects, the memento is affixed directly to the bottle as an auxiliary label. The memento can include such information as the vintager, vintage, type of wine, type of grape, growing region, location of vintager, awards, price, barcode, reviews, coupons, or distributor.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    This invention generally relates to product marking and identification and, more particularly, to a system and method for creating a memento to remember a packaged product, or packaged product label.  
           [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0004]    How many times have you gone to a restaurant and enjoyed a good bottle of wine whose name you couldn&#39;t remember the next day (regardless of how many glasses you had)? Perhaps it was a wine not featured in the local shops you frequent, or perhaps it was made from a type of grape unfamiliar to you. To make things worse, many good wines have pesky foreign names that are so hard to remember or even pronounce.  
           [0005]    It is possible to take the bottle home with you, but walking out of a restaurant with an empty bottle can be embarrassing. Further, the empty bottle can be difficult to explain to the Highway Patrol if you are stopped on the way home. It is possible to remove the label. However, scrapping the label from the bottle rarely works, and soaking the label off requires cooperation from the waiter, and so increases the size of the expected tip. Further, what does one do with a wet label? Critical information can be copied from the label. However, even if a pen (or eyebrow liner pencil) can be found, one must still find a decent piece of paper, or remember to transcribe the information from their palm before washing.  
           [0006]    It would be advantageous if there were an easy way to remember the critical information from a product, such as a wine bottle, to enable one to purchase the same type of product at a later date.  
           [0007]    It would be advantageous if a wine bottle included a memento with some of the information from the wine bottle label.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0008]    A system and method are provided for a package memento that is detachable from a packaged product such as a bottle of wine. The memento provides a convenient means of saving and storing product information that helps the user find and purchase an equivalent bottle of the desired product at a later date.  
           [0009]    Accordingly, a product memento system is provided that comprises a wine bottle (for example), a label affixed to the wine bottle, and a detachable memento affixed overlying the wine bottle. The memento is used to identify the wine bottle. In some aspects the memento is a detachable portion of the label. In other aspects, the memento is affixed directly to the bottle as an auxiliary label. Alternately, the memento can be a tag. The memento can include such information as the vintager, vintage, type of wine, type of grape, growing region, location of vintager, awards, price, barcode, reviews, coupons, or distributor.  
           [0010]    Additional details of the system, a memento, and a method for remembering information from a wine bottle label are provided below. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]    [0011]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present invention product memento system.  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 2 is a more detailed depiction of the label and memento of FIG. 1.  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view of another variation of the label and memento of FIGS. 1 and 2.  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 4 is a perspective view featuring a variation of the present invention product memento system.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 5 is a perspective drawing illustrating details of the memento depicted in FIG. 4.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIGS. 6 a  through  6   c  are perspective views featuring the present invention bottle memento tag variation.  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the present invention method for memorializing a product label. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0018]    [0018]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present invention product memento system. The system  100  comprises a product  102  having an exterior surface  104 . The product can be a bottle or a can for example, but the invention is not limited to any particular product type, material, or shape. However, for simplicity, the product will be described hereafter as a bottle. The bottle  102  can be a wine bottle for example, however, the present invention system can also be used to memorialize other types of bottled products such as water or condiments. A label  106 , having an interior surface (not shown), is affixed to the exterior surface  104  of the bottle  102 . A detachable memento  108  has an interior surface (not shown) affixed overlying the exterior surface  104  of the bottle  102 . The memento  108  is used to identify, remember, or memorialize the bottle  102 . More specifically, the memento  108  is used to identify the label  106 , which in turn permits a user to identify a specific type of bottled product. As shown, the memento  108  is a detachable portion of the label  106 .  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 2 is a more detailed depiction of the label  106  and memento  108  of FIG. 1. The memento  108  has an exterior surface  110  with markings such as vintager, vintage, type of wine, type of grape, growing region, location of vintager, awards, price, barcode, reviews, and/or distributor. The memento can also act as a form of coupon. For example, a coupon permitting the coupon holder to purchase a similar product at a reduced rate. When the product is other than wine, more generic identifying markings such as manufacturer, lot number, sales promotion information, or the product name can be included on the memento surface. In other aspects, the memento exterior surface  110  is completely or partially blank so that the customer, distributor, vintager, restaurateur, or retailer can add information to the memento.  
         [0020]    The label  106  has an exterior surface  200 . The memento  108  interior surface (not shown) is affixed to the exterior surface  200  of the label  106 . In some aspects of the system, an adhesive (not shown) is attached to the memento interior surface. This adhesive is used to adhere the memento  108  to the label  106 , until detached. Alternately, the adhesive is attached to the label exterior surface  200 , in area  202 , underlying the memento interior surface.  
         [0021]    There are many conventional label-attaching adhesives that can be used to adhere the memento  108  to the label  106  in a detachable way. In some aspects, both the label  106  and the memento  108  are paper. In other aspects, the memento  108  is a metallic foil. The adhesive initially attached to the memento  108 , or the residue adhesive remaining on the memento  108  can be used to adhere the memento  108  to a sheet of notebook paper (not shown), for example, when detached from the label. Alternately, no adhesive residue remains on the memento interior surface, so that the memento  108  can be stored in a wallet (not shown), for example, without sticking to other items in the wallet.  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view of another variation of the label  106  and memento  108  of FIGS. 1 and 2. In this aspect, attachment area  202  of the label surface is glossy or relatively slick, so that a paper memento interior surface  300  can be easily removed without sticking to the label  106 . The glossy area may be part of a layer  302  completely underlying the label  106 , as shown. In other aspects not shown, the glossy area may be limited to just the area  202  underlying the memento  108 . In these aspects, the memento  108  would resemble a conventional peel-off return address label or address label of the type that is stuck to an envelope after peeling. The detached memento  108  remains adhesive, to stick in a notebook or day planner for example (not shown), in some aspects. Alternately, the detached memento  108  is not sticky.  
         [0023]    With respect to FIGS. 2 and 3, in some aspects of the system, the label  106  and memento  108  are the same. That is, the entire label  106 , or at least the part of the label  106  including the significant information, can be removed as the memento  108 . Alternately, the label  106  and memento  108  are formed from a common sheet of paper that can be torn into separate memento  108  and label  106  sections. In some aspects, a starter string (not shown), underlying the label  106 , is pulled to split the memento  108  from the portion of the label  106  remaining affixed to the bottle.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 4 is a perspective view featuring a variation of the present invention product memento system  100 . The memento  108  is not attached to the label  106 , but is directly affixed to the bottle exterior surface  104 . An adhesive can be attached to the memento interior surface (not shown), or to the bottle exterior surface  104  underlying the memento interior surface. As above, the memento  108  can be paper or metallic foil, to name but a few conventional label materials. The adhesive initially attached to the memento  108 , or the residue adhesive remaining on the memento  108 , can be used to reattach the memento  108  to another sheet of paper (not shown), for example. Alternately, in other aspects, minimal adhesive residue remains on the memento interior surface, so that the memento  108  can be stored in a wallet, pocket, or purse (not shown) for example.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 5 is a perspective drawing illustrating details of the memento  108  depicted in FIG. 4. This variation includes an auxiliary label  500  having an interior surface (not shown), affixed overlying the exterior surface of the bottle (see FIG. 4). The auxiliary label  500  has an exterior surface  502 . The memento interior surface (not shown) is affixed to the exterior surface  502  of the auxiliary label  500 . This variation of the invention permits the label design to remain independent of the memento. In this manner a famous, well-recognized label design need not be changed, even when a memento auxiliary label  500  is added to the bottle. Further, an independent auxiliary label permits the auxiliary label memento to be selectively added. For example, the auxiliary label memento can be added to only the bottles shipped to the United States. Additionally, an auxiliary label memento can be added after shipment from the manufacturer, by a distributor for example.  
         [0026]    As above, the auxiliary label  500  and the memento  108  can both be paper, or the memento  108  can be a metallic foil overlying a label of either paper or foil. In other aspects, the auxiliary label  500  includes a glossy attachment area such as shown in FIG. 3 and described above.  
         [0027]    Returning to FIG. 4, in some aspects of the system  100 , the memento  108  includes a pull-tab handle  400  to grasp when detaching the memento  108  from the wine bottle  102 . Note that the pull-tab can also be used in the other variations of the inventions depicted in FIGS. 1, 2,  3 , and  5 . The memento  108  can be detached by using the pull-tab to pull the memento  108  from the bottle  102  (FIG. 4), from the auxiliary label as explained in the description of FIG. 5, or from the (primary) label  106  as explained in the descriptions of FIGS. 1, 2, and  3 . Many convention pull-tab mechanisms are known in the art that would be applicable for use with the present invention. Other well-known detachment mechanisms (not shown) that could alternately be used to detach the memento from either the bottle or a label include perforations, rounded corners or edges, or a pull-string to tear a connecting paper bridge.  
         [0028]    [0028]FIGS. 6 a  through  6   c  are perspective views featuring the present invention bottle memento tag variation. The memento  600  is substantially as explained above, with the difference that is a detachable memento tag. The tag material can be thin, such as paper, or semi-rigid and made from a material such as thick paper, cardboard, or plastic to name a few examples of tag materials. The invention can be enabled with any conventional tag material.  
         [0029]    As seen in FIG. 6 b , an adhesive (not shown) is used to attach at least a portion of the memento tag  600  to the bottle exterior surface  104 . As above, the adhesive can be any convention adhesive, or even wax.  
         [0030]    As seen in FIG. 6 a , a link  602  has a first end attached to the tag  600  and a second end attached to the bottle exterior surface  104  neck. In FIG. 6 c , the link is attached to the bottle exterior surface  104  at the body of the bottle. The link can be a string of any convention material such as hemp, fiber, or plastic, see FIG. 6 b . Alternately, the link  602  can be a ribbon of cloth-like material or even paper, see FIG. 6 c . The invention is not limited to any particular link material. In some aspects, the link  602  is formed from the same material as the tag.  
         [0031]    In other aspects, the link  602  is attached to the tag through a hole in the tag, or an eyelet. The link  602  can be attached with a conventional adhesive or wax. In some aspects, the link  602  is formed as a loop that girds either the neck or body of the bottle  102 . The loop can be press-fit around the bottle  102 , or tied. In another aspect, the link  602  is an elastic material, like a rubber band for example, that flexibly girds the bottle  102  for attachment.  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the present invention method for memorializing a product label. This method generally corresponds to FIGS. 1 through 6 c . Although the method is depicted as a sequence of numbered steps for clarity, no order should be inferred from the numbering unless explicitly stated. It should be understood that some of these steps may be skipped, performed in parallel, or performed without the requirement of maintaining a strict order of sequence. The method starts at Step  700 . Step  704  affixes a memento overlying the exterior surface of a bottle. Step  706  presents the memento for detachment from the bottle. In some aspects of the method, affixing the memento in Step  704  includes affixing a label, including the memento, to the exterior surface of the bottle. Then, presenting the memento for detachment in Step  706  includes presenting the memento for detachment from the label. Step  708  detaches the memento. Step  710  uses the detached memento for subsequent identification of the bottle label.  
         [0033]    Alternately, affixing the memento in Step  704  includes affixing the label to the exterior surface of the bottle, and affixing the memento to an exterior surface of the label. In some aspects a further step, Step  702 , attaches an adhesive to an interior surface of the memento interfacing the label exterior surface. Alternately, Step  702  attaches an adhesive to the exterior surface of the label interfacing an interior surface of the label.  
         [0034]    In some aspects of the method, affixing a memento overlying the exterior surface of a bottle in Step  704  includes attaching an adhesive to an interior surface of the memento, and affixing the memento to an exterior surface of the bottle.  
         [0035]    In other aspects, affixing a memento overlying the exterior surface of a bottle in Step  704  includes attaching an adhesive to the exterior surface of the bottle, and affixing the memento to exterior surface of the bottle with the adhesive.  
         [0036]    In some aspects of the method, a further step, Step  701 , marks an exterior surface of the memento with markings such as manufacturer, product name, sales promotion information, and lot number. If the bottle is a wine bottle, Step  701  marks an exterior surface of the memento with markings such as the vintager, vintage, type of wine, type of grape, growing region, location of vintager, awards, price, barcode, reviews, coupons, or distributor.  
         [0037]    In some aspects, presenting the memento for detachment from the wine bottle in Step  706  includes substeps (not shown). Step  706   a  forms a pull-tab handle attached to the memento. Step  706   b  presents the pull-tab for detaching the memento from the bottle.  
         [0038]    In some aspects of the method where the memento is a tag, affixing the memento in Step  704  includes using adhesive to attach a least a portion of a memento tag to the exterior surface of the bottle. Alternately, Step  704  includes substeps (not shown). Step  704   a  attaches a link such as string, ribbon, or elastic to a semi-rigid memento tag. Step  704   b  attaches the link to a bottle exterior surface.  
         [0039]    A detachable memento system and method are presented to memorialize at bottled product, or bottle label. A few examples have been given as to how the memento can be placed on a bottle. Examples have been given as to how the memento can be integrated with a label. Likewise, some examples have been given of how the memento can be detached. However, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to these examples. The invention can also be enabled using other conventional labels or labeling systems. It should also be understood that although the present invention only describes the use of a memento to identify a bottled product, the invention would also be applicable to other packages, such as cans, boxes, paper-wrapped products, and plastic-wrapped products. In another embodiment of the invention not specifically described above, the memento can be information written on a wine bottle cork. Other variations and embodiments of the invention will occur to those skilled in the art.