Patent ID: 8863952

Claim:
A package comprising a carton and a group of bottles, the carton comprising a tubular structure formed from an interconnected series of panels including: a top panel, a first side panel, a bottom panel and a second side panel, the top panel being disposed over tops of the bottles, each of the first and second side panels comprising a notional longitudinal line disposed at an elevation above the bottom panel that is below the elevation of shoulders of the bottles, wherein at least one of opposed ends of the tubular structure is closed by a composite end wall formed from a series of affixed panels including: a top end closure panel, first and second side end closure panels and a bottom end closure panel, wherein each first and second side end closure panel is hinged to the adjacent first or second side wall along a first fold line, wherein each of the first fold lines is interrupted by a pair of at least substantially triangular panels, each of the pairs of the at least substantially triangular panels being formed such that a lowermost triangular panel of the pair is disposed between the respective notional longitudinal line and the bottom panel and such that an uppermost triangular panel of the pair is disposed between the respective notional longitudinal line and the top panel, wherein the lowermost triangular panel of the pair is defined by a pair of fold lines diverging from a lower point spaced below the respective notional longitudinal line toward the respective notional longitudinal line, and wherein the uppermost triangular panel of the pair is defined by a pair of fold lines diverging from an upper point spaced above the respective notional longitudinal line toward the respective notional longitudinal line, whereby the triangular panels of each pair substantially follow the respective contour of the corner bottle disposed within the carton at least proximate to a shoulder of the respective corner bottle such that the bottles are tightly enclosed by the carton, and wherein a distance from the lower point to the respective notional longitudinal line is greater than a distance from the upper point to the respective notional longitudinal line, such that the lower most triangular panel is taller than the uppermost triangular panel.