McDonald et café trop chaud: poursuite dans un monde pré-Starbucks il y a vingt ans!

Le New York Times revient ce matin sur une cause célèbre. Une dame brûlée au troisième degré poursuivait McDonald il y a vingt ans. Elle avançait que le café qu'elle avait renversé était trop chaud et un jury lui a d'abord attribué près de trois millions. Un dossier plus complexe qu'il n'y paraît et qui nous rappelle l'origine des changements dans la manière de servir les cafés aujourd'hui!

 "We now have that little cardboard thing that goes around the disposable cup so you can hold a cup of hot coffee without discomfort. (It actually has a name: the zarf, and one Jay Sorenson is said to have invented it in 1993 and he holds a patent on it under the trademark Java Jacket. Now multiple companies make them.)

Berry Plastics, a company based in Evansville, Ind., that manufactures cold-drink cups for fast-food vendors, including McDonald’s and Starbucks (they’re the ones who created those clear plastic cups with the dome tops for Frappuccinos), recently got into the hot-drink business by developing a “fully recyclable thermal management packaging solution.” In other words, a cup.

 But not just any cup. This one — called Versalite, with 20 patents pending, and currently being tested in several markets — is a disposable cup that insulates the liquid to keep hot coffee from cooling but also to keep the cup from feeling hot to the touch. “We’ve known for a long time that there’s been a need for a better insulating cup,” said Jon Rich, president and chief executive of Berry Plastics. (Incidentally, the Versalite cup performs the same function for cold drinks.)"

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/booming/not-just-a-hot-cup-anymore.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20131022&_r=0