SoftCafe, LLC Issued 3rd Patent

CABIN JOHN, Md., April 2, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- SoftCafe, LLC announced today the issuance to it by the US Patent Office of a patent that covers the menu design and creation software utilized in their online menu app iMenuPro.

The patent for invention number 10,249,010 relates to a menu creation and design system and, more particularly, to the synchronization of multiple menus during the creation and design process.

"This latest patent makes claims in connection with our technology that allows menus to be created, updated online, and synchronized using a food item list, which is unique to our product," said Scott Tyburski, co-founder of SoftCafe, LLC. "It's our third patent and our first utility patent for menu design systems."

The patent covers part of the technology used in iMenuPro, which lets restaurants, hotels, and other service orientated businesses offer instant menus to their customers.  More specifically it covers synchronizing a first and second menu wherein an item is edited on the first menu, the second menu is automatically updated in the same fashion.  This change once, change everywhere system prevents the need for price and description updates to be applied individually to all menus in the user's database and differs from typical online design tools which have no database and no real auto-formatting update method.

"The info-graphic editors that have been popping up on the web for the last few years are great for one-off documents like social media posts, postcards, resumes, logos, etc.  But they're virtually useless for real-world menus that require frequent updates due to changing food costs, item availability, and customer demand," said Mr. Tyburski.  "Text-boxes were invented for advertising headlines. And they're still great for that. But you can't realistically expect to use them to build and maintain a group of linked menus that are filled with food items containing price columns, leader dots, tabbed and hanging indents with separate descriptions, extras, and highlight symbol icons."

Since introducing iMenuPro in 2014, over 30,000 restaurants, hotels, and other businesses worldwide have used it to create menus for their establishments. "We set out to create software that addressed the particular formatting and design needs unique to menus. But we also considered what would comprise the content. That led us to a hybrid database / design type of application, with the design part tuned specifically to menus," said Mr. Tyburski. "While there are other ways to create professional menus, none include the benefits of our online database driven, auto-formatting menu app."

Demand for online menu services is growing as more restaurants and businesses seek the ease, convenience, flexibility, and 'anywhere access' of online services vs. stand-alone desktop applications to keep their printed and online menus up-to-date and synchronized.

About SoftCafe, LLC:

SoftCafe is a small, non-corporate software company headquartered in sunny Cabin John Maryland, just minutes outside of our nation's capital, Washington DC. Their customer base is diverse and includes thousands of independent restaurants, bars, eateries, hotels, country clubs, resorts, spas, caterers, food service distributors, and dispensaries.

SoftCafe, LLC Contact:

Scott Tyburski, Co-founder, 202-350-3915, [email protected]
https://imenupro.com
U.S. Patent 10,249,010

SOURCE SoftCafe, LLC