Patent ID: 7669732

Claim:
A cup lid dispenser comprising: a cup lid containment tube for holding a stack of cup lids; and a base at a lower end of said containment tube for receiving a lower end of a stack of lids in said containment tube, said base having a plurality of cup lid supports for supporting a circumferential periphery of a bottommost lid of the stack, a bottom wall extending from a rearward side of said base partially toward a forward side of said base and below and spaced from said supports and defining between said supports and said bottom wall a cup lid receiving pocket, a cup lid dispensing opening at a forward side of said base and opening to said cup lid receiving pocket, and a user guide at said forward side of said base for exposing a forward portion of just the bottommost lid of the stack for gripping by a user but blocking user access to lids of the stack above the bottommost lid, whereby a user can dispense the bottommost cup lid of the stack by gripping the exposed forward portion of the bottommost lid and pulling the lid downward off of said cup lid supports and into said lid receiving pocket and then forward through said cup lid dispensing opening and out of said cup lid dispenser, wherein said base bottom wall extends forward from a lower rearward side of said base, is joined to said base rearward side about an arcuate extent that is less than half the circumference of said base, extends in a plane generally perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of said containment tube, and extends forward from said base rearward side in a generally “bell curve” configuration toward, but short of, said base forward side to define a generally crescent-shaped opening from a bottom of said base.