ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,702,248, issued on Aug. 11, was assigned to Starbucks Corp. (Seattle).
"Modular brew systems" was invented by Natarajan Venkatakrishnan (Bellevue, Wash.) and Joseph Emil Gormley (Mercer Island, Wash.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A modular brewing system is described for providing hot water and managing power to multiple brew tower modules using a single centralized boiler and power management module so as to limit the number of high-power circuits required in a coffeehouse or store. The boiler and power management module manages power of components of the centralized boiler assembly and any brew tower modules connected thereto, includi...