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McDonald's patents...a sandwich ???????????

Can nobody make a sandwich like McDonald's?

    * David Adam
    * guardian.co.uk, Monday November 20 2006 11.21 GMT
    * The Guardian, Monday November 20 2006
    * Article history

It has been the food of monarchs and commoners ever since John
Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, first pressed some meat between
two slices of bread and took a bite. Billions of butties later, the
fast-food giant McDonald's has set its sights on his invention. The
company has filed patents in Europe and the US that claim the "method
and apparatus for making a sandwich" as its intellectual property.

Patent application WO2006068865 relates to the "pre-assembly of
sandwich components and simultaneous preparation of different parts of
the same sandwich". It covers the "simultaneous toasting of a bread
component" and heating a "meat and/or cheese filling". And it says the
company has invented a way to add garnishes and condiments using a
"sandwich assembly tool".

The patent says McDonald's wants to cut down on the time and labour
required to put its sandwiches together. The company also wants them
to look and taste the same and has come up with what it describes as
"novel methods" to put them together.

The assembly tool contains a "cavity" into which the sandwich-maker
places the garnish ("including, but not limited to, lettuce, onions,
tomatoes, pickles, chilli, coleslaw, giardinera, peppers, spinach,
radishes, olives, egg, cooked bacon and cheese") and the condiments
("ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, sauces, relish, oils, salt, pepper,
barbecue sauce, steak sauce, hot sauce, dressings including salad
dressings, yogurt, butter, margarine and liquid or semi-liquid
cheese").

A "bread component" is then placed over the cavity and the assembly
tool "inverted" to tip out the contents. "Typically, a sandwich
filling will thereafter be placed in the bread component," the 55-page
patent explains. "Often the sandwich filling is the source of the name
of the sandwich, for example - ham sandwich."

It also describes how to make cocktail sandwiches, by taking a
full-sized version that is "cut up into smaller pieces".

Lawrence Smith-Higgins of the UK Patent Office said: "McDonald's or
anyone else can't get retrospective exclusive rights to making a
sandwich. They might have a novel device but it could be quite easy
for someone to make a sandwich in a similar way without infringing
their claims." McDonald's would not comment.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2006/nov/20/foodanddrink.uk