You never know what you’re going to find when you start looking for patents on a given topic. In this case, I expected to find some gimmicky cards and toys. I did not expect this cross-cultural carnivorous bounty.
Exhibit A is the “heart shaped pepperoni slice”: https://patents.google.com/patent/USD491338
This is a design patent, so it only protected the ornamental appearance of the pepperoni slice, and said nothing about the meaty contents of the sausage from which it was cut.
If you wanted to get into the details of how to make special meat for your heart slices, you’d need to get that from the researchers of Nankai University Binhai College in Tianjin, China. They are the inventors of the “heart-shaped sausage for Saint Valentine’s Day”: https://patents.google.com/patent/CN101756271A
No pictures for this one, but some excellent copy.
The heart-shaped sausage has the benefits of simple process, perfect workmanship, good taste, good health-care function and good shape, thereby being applicable to being given for lovers and wives and creating festive atmosphere.
CN 101756271, Abstract
As you ply your lover(s) with sausages this Valentine’s Day, I hope you do it with proper licensing and the utmost respect for the intellectual property rights of others. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Patenting the odd, the impossible, and the unnerving 