Patent Application
20080164391
1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to a device for holding personal articles such as eyeglasses and the like. More particularly, but not exclusively, the present invention relates to a device that holds eyeglasses or sunglasses, pens, pencils or any other small object and clips. The device may be attached to any surface such as appliances, furniture, computers, clothing, clothing accessories and flat surfaces such as automobile visors and books.
2. Background Art
Many people periodically wear eyeglasses and/or sunglasses. However, at certain times, a wearer of eyeglasses or sunglasses (collectively referred to herein as “glasses”) may wish to remove and store their glasses for short periods when the glasses are not needed. For example, a wearer of sunglasses may remove them during evening hours when sunlight begins to fade. The wearer may typically remove them and place them in a convenient location such as on the dashboard of the car, on an adjacent seat, in a cubbyhole or the like. These locations, while convenient, may subject the glasses to be susceptible to soiling, damage and/or loss. Consequently, there is a need for a holder of personal articles, including glasses, which conveniently stores such items to prevent soiling, damage and/or loss.
Many attempts to provide such a holder have been made. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,134,753 and 5,794,312 to O'Mahony disclose holding devices including a clip portion for attaching the holding device to a desired surface and a S-shaped or U-shaped portion for securing temples of glasses.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,487 to Keely discloses a retainer for holding eyeglasses that includes a retainer ring rotatably mounted to a clamping means. The clamping means secures the retainer to a desired surface, such as a automobile visor, while the retainer ring receives and secures the temple portion of a pair of eyeglasses.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,476 to Mancinelli discloses a holder for securing eyeglasses to a visor including a body and a clip. The body receives the bridge of the eyeglasses with the temple bars of the glasses resting on-top of the body. The clip is disposed on a portion of the body and forms a flexible clamp for securing the holder to a visor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,459 to Goldenberg discloses a clip for securing eyeglasses or sunglasses that slides onto an article of clothing. The clip is similar to a conventional money clip but has an elastic material to create a channel for receiving a temple of a pair of glasses.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,210,003 to Chan discloses a personal article holder having a clamping body and a visor clip. And U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,432 to Kushner, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a personal article holder having a clamping body and a display window disposed on the clamping body for displaying desired images.
While these and other known retainers and holders for glasses and other articles may provide effective for protecting such items against loss, damage or soiling, they may have drawbacks such as requiring two hands to insert an article into the respective holder, not securely holding an article once inserted into the holder, damaging an article inserted into the holder, and/or consisting of intricate, expensive and potentially delicate parts.
An improved article holder which alleviates one or more of these drawbacks is desirable.
Further aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention in reference to the appended drawing in which like numerals denote like elements and in which:
Turning to
In one embodiment, the upper or lower arm members 120, 115 may include a soft cushion member 130 disposed on an inside surface which serves to gently secure an inserted article between opposing surfaces of upper and lower arm members 115 and 120.
In certain embodiments cushion member 120 may be glued or otherwise attached to the upper arm member 115. The attachment portion 105 is secured to upper arm member 115, opposite the side of its respective cushion member 130 for attaching to a desired surface such as a car visor, clothing, refrigerator, or other surface.
In preferred embodiments, lower arm member 120 may be longer than upper arm member 115 such that a toe 124 of lower arm member 120 extends outward from article holder 100, past a corresponding end of upper arm member 115. In this manner, toe 124 of lower arm member 120 may serve as a leveraging surface to open article holder 100 from a clamped position with the same hand being used to insert an article for holding. Toe 124 may also serve as a guide for certain articles to be held as discussed below with reference to
In one non-limiting embodiment, an inner surface of lower arm member 120 may include one or more securing mechanisms 122 for securing articles from slipping out from between upper and lower arm members 115 and 120 when they are in a clamped position (
Turning to
It should be recognized that instead of pin 311, alternative types of pivoting couplings could be used such as one or more collars and corresponding protrusions formed in hinge axis members 313 and 323. Additionally, various types of tension members other than spring 312 could be used and thus the inventive embodiments are not limited to the specific arrangement shown in
The embodiment of
Cushion members 130, 330 may be any material suitable to gently secure an article between the upper and lower arm members in the clamped position. In certain embodiments, cushion members 130, 330 may be made of a foam rubber material and fixed or removably attached to one or both upper and lower arm members in any manner for one material to be secured to another, e.g., snaps, adhesive, VELCRO, etc. In one embodiment, an oversized cushion member 130, 330 is fixed to the interior surface of the lower arm member using an adhesive.
Upper arm members 115, 315 and lower arm members 120, 320 of the clamping body may be made from any rigid material rigid such as rigid plastics, ceramics, metals, woods or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, upper and lower arms are formed in an injection mold using an ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadience-Styrene) plastic material, which may be tinted or colored to achieve a desired color. ABS plastics are used in preferred embodiments since they are relatively inexpensive, possess high strength and durability material characteristics and readily accept plating and painting to vary appearance and design of the device.
The clamping body may be formed in using elongated single upper and lower arm member to obtain any desired shape such as a circle, an oval, a rectangle, a square, a trapezoid or any other symmetrical or asymmetrical shape and may be any size or color desired. However, in certain embodiments, lower arm member 120, 320 may be formed in a scoop-like shape. The scoop-like shape allows the toe 124, 324 of lower arm member 120, 320 to be easily leveraged away from upper arm member 115, 315 as well as acting as a guide member for certain articles. Additionally, when article holder 100, 300 is clipped to a horizontal surface such as an automobile visor, scoop-like shape may help prevent an article which in not fully secured, or may become inadvertently dislodged, from falling entirely.
Attachment portion 105, 305 of the respective embodiments may be any mechanism or arrangement for facilitating temporary or permanent fixation of the clamping body to other surfaces. Examples of attachment portion 105, 305 include a clip, a magnet, VELCRO™, a suction cup, double sided tape, etc. In one embodiment, attachment portion 105, 305 is a tensioned wire attached to a side of upper arm member 115, 315 opposite the side having cushion member 130, 330 similar to, but not limited to, the example shown in
Unless contrary to physical possibility, the inventor envisions the components of respective embodiments may be combined in any manner.
Although there have been described preferred embodiments of this novel invention, many variations and modifications are possible and the embodiments described herein are not limited by the specific disclosure above, but rather should be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.
