Patent Application
20190168529
Appreciation cards are popular gifts to give friends, relatives, employees, and other individuals to whom a gift giver wants to show appreciation. Such appreciation cards are known to include gift cards which have a preset amount of currency associated therewith for use at one or more shopping establishments. In such circumstances, the appreciation card houses the gift card in such a way that it is unlikely to fall out of the appreciation card prior to delivery. Mechanisms by which an appreciation card houses a gift card include a plurality of corner pockets that house only the corners of the gift card, as well as obvious gift card pockets that are adhered to the surface of the appreciation card.
However, some purchasers of such appreciation cards either forget or decide not to include a gift card with the appreciation card. The absence of the gift card is obvious to the receiver of the appreciation card, which can engender a negative reaction by the receiver due to the belief that the sender is uncaring or cheap. In such circumstances, there is desire in the market to have an appreciation card that conceals the gift card receptacle or otherwise does not make obvious the absence of a gift card therein.
In view of the foregoing background, an appreciation card is disclosed. The appreciation card includes a front panel having a front face, a back face opposite the front face, a left side edge located on one side, and a right side edge located on an opposite side. The front panel includes a window formed therein that is located between the left side edge and the right side edge and is defined by a window border. The appreciation card also includes a gift card panel disposed on the back face of the front panel below the window border. The gift card panel includes a pocket section and an attachment tab, the pocket section being connected to the window border on a first end and to the attachment tab at an opposing second end, the attachment tab being adhered to the back face of the front panel, and the pocket section being free from the back face of the front panel. The front panel and the gift card panel define a gift card slot located between the window border of the front panel and the first end of the gift card panel, the gift card slot being sized and shaped to enable a gift card to be inserted therein.
For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference is made to the following detailed description of an embodiment considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The following disclosure is presented to provide an illustration of the general principles of the present invention and is not meant to limit, in any way, the inventive concepts contained herein. Moreover, the particular features described in this section can be used in combination with the other described features in each of the multitude of possible permutations and combinations contained herein.
All terms defined herein should be afforded their broadest possible interpretation, including any implied meanings as dictated by a reading of the specification as well as any words that a person having skill in the art and/or a dictionary, treatise, or similar authority would assign particular meaning. Further, it should be noted that, as recited in the specification and in the claims appended hereto, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include the plural referents unless otherwise stated. Additionally, the terms “comprises” and “comprising” when used herein specify that certain features are present in that embodiment, but should not be interpreted to preclude the presence or addition of additional features, components, operations, and/or groups thereof.
The following disclosure is intended to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings, which are to be considered part of the entire written description of the invention. The drawing figures are not necessarily to scale and certain features of the invention may be shown exaggerated in scale or in somewhat schematic form in the interest of clarity and conciseness. In this description, relative terms such as “horizontal,” “vertical,” “up,” “down,” “top,” “bottom,” as well as derivatives thereof (e.g., “horizontally,” “downwardly,” “upwardly,” etc.) should be construed to refer to the orientation as then described or as shown in the drawing figure under discussion. These relative terms are for convenience of description and normally are not intended to require a particular orientation. Terms including “inwardly” versus “outwardly,” “longitudinal” versus “lateral” and the like are to be interpreted relative to one another or relative to an axis of elongation, or an axis or center of rotation, as appropriate. Terms concerning attachments, coupling and the like, such as “connected” and “interconnected,” refer to a relationship wherein structures are secured or attached to one another either directly or indirectly through intervening structures, as well as both moveable or rigid attachments or relationships, unless expressly described otherwise, and includes terms such as “directly” coupled, secured, etc. The term “operatively coupled” is such an attachment, coupling, or connection that allows the pertinent structures to operate as intended by virtue of that relationship.
Turning now to
In one embodiment, the blank 10 is sized and shaped to create a housing (see
In one embodiment, each of the top side panel 20, the bottom side panel 22, the right side panel 26, and the left side cover panel 28 has a depth D that corresponds to the thickness of the housing of the assembled appreciation card, with the left side panel 24 having a depth that is slightly smaller than D to allow the left side panel 24 to be nested in the left side cover panel 28 when the blank 10 is constructed. To assist with construction and enclosing the housing of the assembled blank 10, the top side panel 20, the bottom side panel 22, and left side panel 24 include a top side tab 30a, a bottom side tap 30b, and a left side tab 30c, respectively, while the left side panel 24 and the right side panel 26 each include top and bottom flaps (i.e., top and bottom left side flaps 32a, 32b and top and bottom right side flaps 34a, 34b, respectively) that are located on either side of the top side and bottom side tabs 30a, 30b, respectively.
In one embodiment, a cover locking tab 36 is cut from the inside cover panel 18 and a cover locking tab slot 38 is cut along the right side edge 12d of the inside front panel 12. The cover locking tab 36 is sized and shaped to be inserted in the cover locking tab slot 38 when the blank 10 is assembled, as will be discussed in further detail below.
The blank 10 includes a gift card panel 40 that is cut from the inside front panel 12 along a window border 42. The gift card panel 40 includes a pocket section 44 and an attachment tab 46 whose function will be explained in detail further below. The gift card panel 40 is secured to the inside front panel 12 by a first flap hinge 48a and a second flap hinge 48b, which are uncut portions of the inside front panel 12 that enable the gift card panel 40 to remain attached to the inside front panel 12, thereby creating living hinges between the gift card panel 40 and the inside front panel 12. Between the first and second flap hinges 48a, 48b is a slit cut from the inside front panel 12 to create a gift card tab 50. In one embodiment, the gift card tab 50 has an arcuate shape that facilitates being pulled by a user's finger to reveal a gift card slot (not shown) into which a user can insert a gift card, as will be discussed in detail further below.
Turning now to
The gift card slot 54 is sized and shaped to allow a gift card (not shown; see
The inside cover panel 18 is folded toward the front cover panel 16 along the left side edge 18c of the inside cover panel 18 (which is also the right side edge 16d of the front cover panel 16) such that the back faces 16f, 18f of the front and inside cover panels 16, 18 meet, thereby causing the cover locking tab 36 to pop out of the inside cover panel 18. The back face 18f of the inside cover panel 18 is adhered to the back face 16f of the front cover panel 16, creating a cover panel 56.
Referring now to
Referring now to
There are many advantages to this embodiment of an appreciation card 58. First, the structure of the pocket created by the gift card panel 40 and the gift card slot 54 allows a gift card 68 inserted therein to be better maintained inside the appreciation card 58 in the event that the appreciation card gets jostled. Second, because pocket of the appreciation card 58 holds the gift card 68 around its middle and not at its corners, the gift card 68 is less likely to break due to stress from bending the gift card 68, as could happen when inserting and removing a gift card 68 from a corner pocket arrangement.
Third, the concealment of the gift card slot 54 between the gift card tab 50 and the candy bar 66 allows the insertion of a gift card to be optional for the giver of the appreciation card 58. Because it is not immediately apparent to a receiver of the appreciation card 58 that a gift card 68 is supposed to be inserted into the gift card slot 54, it allows the giver of the appreciation card 58, who may have either forgotten or deliberately chose not to insert a gift card 68 into the gift card slot 54 prior to delivering the appreciation card 58 to the recipient, to not appear as thoughtless or unappreciative to the recipient.
Many variations of the above described embodiment can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. For instance, the appreciation card 58 can include a removable instruction label 70 that informs the user/giver that a gift card 68 may be inserted in the gift card slot 54 behind the gift card tab 50. By being removable, this allows the giver who decides not to include a gift card 68 with the appreciation card 58 to remove the instruction label 70 from the appreciation card 58, thereby hiding from the recipient the fact that the appreciation card 58 could have included a gift card 68 which the giver ultimately decided not to include.
In addition, the appreciation card need not include a gift housing 60. In such circumstances, the blank 10 would not be cut to include the top, bottom, left, and right side panels 20, 22, 24, 26, the left side cover panel 28, and any of the tabs and flaps attached thereto (i.e., top, bottom, left and right side tabs 30a-d; top and bottom left side flaps 32a-b and top and bottom right side flaps 34a-b), and the back face 14f of the back panel 14 could simply be adhered to the back face 12f of the inside front panel 12 after the gift card panel 40 had been adhered to the inside front panel 12 as described above.
All examples and conditional language recited herein are intended for pedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principles of the present invention and the concepts contributed by the inventor in furthering the art. As such, they are to be construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions. Moreover, all statements herein reciting principles, aspects, and embodiments of the invention, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass both structural and functional equivalents thereof. Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include both currently known equivalents as well as equivalents developed in the future, i.e., any elements developed that perform the same function, regardless of structure.
It is to be understood that the embodiments described herein are merely exemplary and that a person skilled in the art may make many variations and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. All such variations and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the invention, as defined by the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62595259 | Dec 2017 | US |
