Touch Coffee Beverages Files Patent Dispute Injunction Against Keurig Green Mountain

LOS ANGELES -- Touch Coffee & Beverages LLC has filed a motion for preliminary injunction against Keurig Green Mountain Inc. for patent infringement. Touch Coffee claims that its four U.S. patents cover the Keurig 2.0 series of brewers.

In 2015, Touch Coffee introduced a single-cup coffee platform with its new brewers and XBold Cups and XLarge Cups. It offers three in-home brewers and one model for the workplace. Compared with most K-Cups, which pack about 11.5g. of coffee, Touch Coffee's patent pending XBold and XLarge cups incorporate the latest filter and pod design to hold up to 15g. and 18g. of coffee, respectively.

To accommodate two different styles of single-serve cups (Keurig's K-Cup capsules and the XBold taller XLarge), Touch Coffee's brewers incorporate one inlet needle to inject hot water and two outlet needles to pierce two different styles of cups and drain the beverage from their respective cups. Touch's patents generally cover the use of a single-serve brewing system with a single-inlet needle and multiple outlet needles.

According to Touch's motion for preliminary injunction, Keurig has since also introduced the one-inlet/two-outlet needles concept in its Keurig 2.0 series of brewers to accommodate beverage capsules of various sizes, including its K-Cup, K-Carafe and K-Mug single-cup packs.

Touch Coffee also sets its brewers apart from Keurig and other compatible brewers by engineering them to brew hotter, at about 200°F. and faster at only 20 seconds with zero idle energy consumptions. Compatible with all existing K-Cups, Touch's open platform brewers also brew bigger, from 4 fl.oz. to 26 fl.oz.

The extra space in the XLarge Cup also allows it to hold up to 25g. of soluble ingredients, such as the combination of coffee and milk powder to brew a latte beverage from one capsule. Touch's premium LA Coffee brand offers XBold Cups with up to 30% more coffee than most K-Cups for a stronger brew and can be used in any Keurig-compatible coffee brewer.