A Patent For An Integrated Substantially Thermally Sealed Insulated Keg

Apparently Nathan Mhyrvold, former Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, Bill Gates, you all know who Bill Gates is, have invented a "temperature stabilized storage container." These two articles are big on gossip and "haha beer" kind of stuff, but are light on the actual technology (a pet peeve of non-beer writers that write about beer and technology writers in general).

The Patent Application basically says it's an insulated keg.

Systems described herein include integrally sealed containers. An integrally sealed container may include one or more segments of a first ultra efficient insulation material having one or more surface regions, the one or more segments principally defining at least one storage region; and one or more regions of substantially thermally sealed connections between at least one of the one or more surface regions of the one or more segments wherein the one or more regions of substantially thermally sealed connections and the one or more segments form an integrally thermally sealed storage region.

I love that a keg is a "system" - but that's patent-ese for you. "Integrally sealed" means the seal is part of the keg itself and integrated into the keg. In this case, basically, an insulation sleeve is welded to the outside of the keg.

They have welded a can koozy on to their keg.

Good idea. But, keep in mind that you are now on notice that if you decide to weld some insulation to your kegs, you are now infringing Bill Gates' patent.