- Filed
- Oct 2, 2026
- Last modified
- Oct 22, 2026
- Petitioner
- Duke Manufacturing Co.
- Inventor
- Kyle Thomas Kestner et al
Invalidity dossier
US 11771264
Multi-zone food holding bin
Current assignee: Marmon Foodservice Technologies Inc
Added 10/3/2026, 12:00:19 AM
At a glanceActive PTAB challengeNo litigation on file
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Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
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Patent Overview — US 11771264 B1
Title: Multi-zone food holding bin
Assignee/Original Assignee (per source): Marmon Foodservice Technologies Inc. The record also lists assignment to Prince Castle LLC (2020-12-21) and a merger/change-of-name to Marmon Foodservice Technologies, Inc. (2021-01-26), with inventors Kyle Thomas Kestner, Christopher B. Lyons, Jr., Charles B. Hartfelder, and Zachary N. McCoy.
Key dates: Priority date 2016-04-20; application US 17/089,072 filed 2020-11-04; granted and published 2023-10-03; status Active with adjusted expiration 2037-04-03. Classifications include A47J39/006, A47J36/2483, A47J36/2488, F24C7/043, H05B3/0076, and F24C15/18.
Purpose: Fast food restaurants often pre-cook food and hold it warm, but known holding bins keep food for limited times (generally under 15–20 minutes) before discard, causing waste and cost. The disclosed bin addresses this by maintaining different temperatures in separate zones of one compartment.
Plain-language scope: The bin has two or more separate food holding compartments; each compartment contains two or more separate food holding zones (e.g., zones 57a and 57b). Each zone may contain two food holding bays (51a–51d), each sized to receive a single food holding tray 27 and/or lid 21. Each zone can be configured to maintain a different food holding temperature via independently controllable upper and lower heating elements, letting an operator hold foods with different heating requirements in the same compartment, improving energy efficiency and potentially reducing space needs. Food preparers may insert items from one side and servers remove them from the opposite side, though same-side insertion/removal is also known.
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not include the full claims, complete specification, drawings, or the full heating element description; it does not establish claim scope, validity, enforceability, or litigation/ownership conclusions. Dashed bay lines are stated to be for illustration only.
Generated 10/3/2026, 12:00:48 AM
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Assignment history
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Prior art
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