Patent Application
20190343315
A portion of the disclosure of this patent contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present invention relates to an improved beach towel. In particular, it relates to a beach towel which can be used to accommodate an adult individual lying down on the sand with room for accessories to sit on it in a manner that it does not get in the way nor gets contaminated with sand.
The trip to the beach or other recreation areas where an individual plans on lying down and resting or sunning themselves involves not only a towel to lie upon but various accessories are usually brought along as well. Those items include food, clothing, entertainment devices, sunscreen, sunglasses, and the like. The purpose of the towel is so that the individual does not need to lie directly on the sand in order to keep the sand off the user. Since most beach towels are designed to accommodate the individual, the accessories tend to either end up scrunched next to the individual, left in the sand to overheat, or get full of sand.
Some solutions are available. For example, when an individual brings accessories in a tote bag, the items can remain in the tote bag until needed. However, this means they are not readily available for use and repeated digging through a bag is not only inefficient, it can be exasperating. Various types of pockets have been designed into beach towels as well as built in tote bags or towels that convert to tote bags, but once again, the items are not out and available for immediate use. In other related disclosures, there are other T-shaped devices but are not usable on both sides, have holes that allow sand in on the towel, and are not designed for an adult.
The present invention relates to a novel design of a beach towel which takes up a minimal amount of room but allows more space for placement of items, without getting sand in them.
Accordingly, in one embodiment, there is a method of providing a surface designed to accommodate an adult individual lying down on sand and the individual's beach accessories associated with the individual consisting of:
While this invention is susceptible to embodiment in many different forms, there is shown in the drawings, and will herein be described in detail, specific embodiments with the understanding that the present disclosure of such embodiments is to be considered as an example of the principles and not intended to limit the invention to the specific embodiments shown and described. In the description below, like reference numerals are used to describe the same, similar, or corresponding parts in the several views of the drawings. This detailed description defines the meaning of the terms used herein and specifically describes embodiments in order for those skilled in the art to practice the invention.
The terms “about” and “essentially” mean±10 percent.
The terms “a” or “an”, as used herein, are defined as one or as more than one. The term “plurality”, as used herein, is defined as two or as more than two. The term “another”, as used herein, is defined as at least a second or more. The terms “including” and/or “having”, as used herein, are defined as comprising (i.e., open language). The term “coupled”, as used herein, is defined as connected, although not necessarily directly, and not necessarily mechanically.
The term “comprising” is not intended to limit inventions to only claiming the present invention with such comprising language. Any invention using the term comprising could be separated into one or more claims using “consisting” or “consisting of” claim language and is so intended.
Reference throughout this document to “one embodiment”, “certain embodiments”, “an embodiment”, or similar terms means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, the appearances of such phrases in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments without limitation.
The term “or”, as used herein, is to be interpreted as an inclusive or meaning any one or any combination. Therefore, “A, B, or C” means any of the following: “A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; A, B, and C”. An exception to this definition will occur only when a combination of elements, functions, steps, or acts are in some way inherently mutually exclusive.
The drawings featured in the figures are for the purpose of illustrating certain convenient embodiments of the present invention and are not to be considered as limitation thereto. The term “means” preceding a present participle of an operation indicates a desired function for which there is one or more embodiments, i.e., one or more methods, devices, or apparatuses for achieving the desired function and that one skilled in the art could select from these or their equivalent in view of the disclosure herein, and use of the term “means” is not intended to be limiting.
As used herein, the term “beach towel” refers to a large towel suitable for an adult lying upon it at the beach or on the sand. In one embodiment, typically it is made of a flexible absorbent material. In another embodiment, the material is absorbent terry cloth. In order to keep sand off both the individual and accessories, the beach towel must not have any holes from which sand can pass through and get on the upward surface of the towel. In addition, it is usable on either a first side or a second side.
As used herein, the term “accessories” refers to anything that would be set on the beach towel such as clothing, food and drink, electronics, sport equipment, toys, small children, keys, and the like for which one does not wish to be contaminated with sand.
As used herein, the term “vertical section” refers to the part of the beach towel that is designed for the individual to lie upon. In general, it is just like a regular essentially rectangular beach towel. It has a top edge, a bottom edge, a vertical length, and a horizontal width which together define the perimeter of the beach towel. In one embodiment, the vertical section is about 48 to 60 inches long and between about 26 and 48 inches wide.
As used herein, the term “horizontal section” refers to an essentially rectangular portion positioned at the top edge of the vertical section essentially perpendicular to the vertical section and having a horizontal length at least 75% longer than the vertical section is wide and a width of at least about 24 inches. In one embodiment, the horizontal length is from about 48 to 72 inches. The position of this section on the vertical section creates a towel with a T-shape. In one embodiment, the horizontal section is positioned such that essentially equal sections extend past each side edge of the vertical section, as shown in the Figures. In addition, the center portion of the horizontal section extends the vertical section allowing for head placement.
Now referring to the drawings,
Those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may make modifications resulting in other embodiments employing principles of the present invention without departing from its spirit or characteristics, particularly upon considering the foregoing teachings. Accordingly, the described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative, and not restrictive, and the scope of the present invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description or drawings. Consequently, while the present invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments, modifications of structure, sequence, materials, and the like apparent to those skilled in the art still fall within the scope of the invention as claimed by the applicant.
This application is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 15/946,135 filed on Apr. 5, 2018 which is a divisional application of U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 15/660,270 filed on Jul. 26, 2017, and which are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 15660270 | Jul 2017 | US |
| Child | 15946135 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 15946135 | Apr 2018 | US |
| Child | 16521178 | US |
