Appointment cards and business cards can be provided by anyone, including for example, doctors, dentists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and lawyers, Typically appointment cards are provided to remind their patients and clients about the details of the future appointment or meeting. Business cards usually provide information about a person or business, and contain contact information, such as addresses and phone numbers. One side of an appointment card may be the business information about the professional, including address and phone numbers. On the other side, the appointment card may include for example, the date and time of the next meeting, and the purpose of the meeting.
Once a person is provided with these appointment cards, keeping them organized can be problem, especially for a large family with multiple children or for a person having a large number of appointments. One may attach through tape, staples or paper clips to an existing paper wall calendar. Others may transfer the information to their cellular phone or other electronic planner or software, so that the appointment can be electronically tracked. The problem with electronic gadgets is that they run out of power, can be lost or stolen, or may even stop working altogether or operating correctly. Once the electronic gadget has become disabled, the ability to track and check electronically stored appointments is nearly impossible.
Therefore, what is needed is an easy to use appointment card calendar that organizes the appointment cards and makes them readily available to a user. Also what is needed is an appointment card calendar that lets a user insert the appointment card into the calendar on the day of the appointment. What is also needed is an appointment card calendar that distinguishes between AM (ante meridiem) and PM (post meridiem) appointments, so the time of the appointment can be readily ascertained.
Accordingly, the appointment card calendar enables a user to insert an appointment card or business card into a slot for the day of the scheduled appointment. The user can then check which appointments are scheduled by retrieving the appointment cards that had been inserted into the calendar for that particular day and then check the information contained on each appointment card.
An object of the present invention is to provide an appointment card calendar that easily organizes scheduled appointments by inserting the appointment cards into a slot corresponding to the day of the appointment.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an appointment card calendar that is economical to manufacture and easy to use.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an appointment card calendar that provides a quick way for referring to the appointments that have been scheduled during a particular month.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed and not to limit it.
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
A whiteboard is also known as a wipe board, marker board, dry erase board, dry wipe board or a pen board. Whiteboard is a name for any glossy surface, most commonly colored white, where non-permanent markings can be made. Whiteboards operate analogously to chalk boards in that they allow markings to temporarily adhere to the surface of the board. Hard-coat laminate and melamine (a resin-impregnated paper which is typically used over a pressboard substrate) are two types of materials that can be used on the front sheet 15 of calendar 10. In the preferred embodiment, a hard-coat laminate is used.
Each monthly sheet 15 of calendar 10 are joined together to other monthly sheets 15 of calendar 10 via a spiral binding 20. Calendar 10 is preferred spiral-bound, meaning that a spiral of wire is looped through large perforations at the top or side of the sheet 15 of calendar 10. Other binding devices and methods could be used as well including rings, rods, discs, or other hinges. In each of these systems, the sheets 15 are modified with perforations that facilitate the specific binding mechanism's ability to secure them. Ring-bound and rod-bound calendars 10 secure the sheets 15 by threading perforated sheets 15 around straight or curved prongs. In the open position, the sheets 15 can be removed and re-arranged. In the closed position, the sheets 15 are kept in order. Disc-bound calendars 10 remove the open or closed operation by modifying the pages themselves. A sheet 15 perforated for a disc-bound binding calendar 10 contains a row of teeth along the side edge of the sheet 15 that grip onto the outside raised perimeter of individual discs. Sheets 15 can be added or removed at any time by peeling the perforations away from each disc.
The sheet 15 corresponding to January 2011 is shown as an example in
As shown in
Each day section 35 of day grid 30 has an AM section 40 and a PM section 45. Each of the AM sections 40 and PM sections 45 has at least one slit, cut, opening, or slot. Each of the slots is where an appointment card can be inserted into the calendar 10. Each slot can hold multiple appointment cards or business cards. A portion of the appointment card will be visible when inserted into a slot in calendar 10. In the preferred embodiment, the appointment card will not cover the number of the day associated with the day section above it. For example, when an appointment card is inserted into the AM section or PM section associated with day “12”, the appointment card will not cover the day number “5”, which is the day section directly above the day section “12”. However, if calendar 10 is made smaller, meaning the day sections 35 are made smaller, it will be appreciated that when an appointment card is inserted into the slot, the appointment card may cover numbers above or below
As shown in
In the preferred embodiment, a pocket is formed in each day section 35 by an adhesive that runs along the bottom and sides of each of the day sections 35. This adhesive is found on the back side of the front sheet 15, and the front side of the back sheet, and is where the front sheet 15 attaches to the back sheet 15. The adhesive runs along bottom of each row 50 and column 55 of grid 30. There are a vast number of adhesives that could be used for joining the front and back sheets together, but a typical adhesive that can be used is glue or two-sided tape. By having the adhesive join the two sheets together, this forms a pocket or ledge for each day section 35. The appointment card can then be inserted through AM section 40 or PM section 45. An edge of the appointment card will stop and rest at the bottom of the row 50 where the adhesive is located. In an alternative embodiment, an adhesive could be used on the rows 50 only. An adhesive would not be used or placed on columns 55.
Instead of using one slot for each of the AM sections 40 and PM sections 45, two slits or openings in sheet 15 could be alternatively used for each of the AM sections 40 and for each of the PM section 45. When two slits are used for AM sections 40 and PM sections 45, an appointment card can alternatively be placed between the two slits instead of being inserted into the pocket of the day section 35. This means that the appointment card will not be inserted into a pocket into the calendar 10, but instead will be held onto the front of calendar 10 by the piece of material that is formed between the two slits formed by sheet 15.
The calendar 10 can be attached to a wall or door by hanging the calendar 10 using an bar 60 as shown in
Particular embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, and it will be understood that it is not intended to limit the present invention to the preferred embodiments. It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, the present invention is intended to cover alternatives, modifications and equivalents, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined herein. For example, the calendar and AM sections 40 and PM sections 45 are oriented in the vertical direction, meaning that appointment cards are inserted in the vertical direction. However, in alternative embodiments, the AM sections 40 and PM sections 45 could be oriented in the horizontal direction, so that appointment cards can be easily read and are insertable in the horizontal plane or direction. Pockets for each of the day sections 35 would be formed along the columns 55 instead of the rows 50 (
While the invention has been described in detail and with reference to specific embodiments thereof, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/226,201, filed Jul. 16, 2009, and which is incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61226201 | Jul 2009 | US |