Patent Application
20250235766
The present invention relates to a game comprising beanbags thrown or tossed at a game board that has vertical bars, side rails, and top and bottom panel, such that the beanbags may become wedged or captured in slots formed between opposing vertical bars and/or between a vertical bar and an opposing side rail.
Reference is made herein to the accompanying drawings, where like numbers represent like elements. All drawings contained herein are drawn to scale.
In the following description of the present invention, examples are meant to be non-limiting. Other, non-listed examples may also fall within the scope of the present invention, as will occur to persons skilled in the art.
As used herein, the terms “board”, “game board”, and “target” may be used interchangeably.
As used herein, “capture” and “captured” means retained in whole or in part between opposing pairs of bars, as will be understood.
In preferred embodiments of the present invention, the board (1) may comprise a number of bars (9) and two half bars (8) which each may form a side panel (7). The bars may be positioned within a top cap (10) and a bottom cap (11), each configured to receive the bars. Legs (5) may be pivotally secured to the board in any known manner, including, for example, by use of a retaining member (12). The board may include a top panel (2) and a bottom panel (6).
Opposing pairs of bars (including both the bars and the side bars, if any) define target slots (17) into which beanbags may be thrown such that they may be captured in the aperture (18) formed by the gap between pairs of opposing bars. For example, a configuration with four bars and two side bars comprises five target slots/apertures is shown in the various drawings. Different embodiments of the present invention may include different quantities of bars and/or side bars which would result in a different number of target slots.
The legs (5) may be positioned at an angle relative to the board (1) so that the assembly is oriented at a slight angle relative to a surface on which the board is placed. Alternatively, the board may be placed completely upright or horizontally. Standing the board at a slight angle may be achieved with a built in stand that folds out from the back of the game board. An optimal angle for the cabinet on a stand is approximately 115 degrees.
The board may be weighted sufficiently so that it remains sufficiently stationary when impacted by thrown beanbags, as described further below. Alternatively, the board may be affixed to a surface or other structure such as a door, wall, etc. Affixation may be particularly appropriate for smaller sized boards.
Certain preferred embodiments of the present invention include generally “spade” shaped bars, such bars each having two wing portions (16). Wide bars may have one wing portion. Each wing is comprised of a flat portion (20) and a curved portion (21), terminating at one end at a wing tip (14) and at the other end at a bar tip (15) located at the bar point (24). Each wing is attached at the bar point end to a bar vertical support (23), which is in turn attached at an end opposite the bar point to a bar base (22) so that the bar vertical support and bar base generally form a “T” structure.
The wing portions may be sized such that they may be readily elastically deformed by a beanbag and when so deformed yield a biasing force against such a beanbag, thus aiding in the capture of such a beanbag between opposing bars, the elastic deformation preferably allowing the wing to flex until touching or nearly touching a face of the bar vertical support. In one preferred embodiment, the amount of elastic deformation as just described is 23 mm.
In alternative embodiments, bars may be effectively rigid. In such embodiments, the beanbags may be elastically deformable to provide biasing force against the rails thus facilitating capture of the beanbags between pairs of bars.
Bars of preferred embodiments of the present invention may be made of any material with sufficient elasticity to achieve the capturing effect just described, including for example, wood, metal, foam, or plastic. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), with a UV protector, is a preferred material, as is polypropylene.
The spade shape of preferred embodiments of the present invention have a further benefit of increasing the effective width of the target slots (17) while maintaining the width of each aperture (18) sufficiently narrow to facilitate capture, as illustrated, for example, in
A scoring system may be displayed on each side rail indicating players' scores. Additionally, a bottom panel may show point values of each slot.
In some preferred embodiments of the present invention, the board may include a top panel (2) with indentations or grooves (collectively “grooves”) (4) formed between a number of protrusions or spikes (3) into which a beanbag may be thrown. Individual grooves may be oriented directly above each slot.
In preferred embodiments of the present invention, the board may include a backboard. The backboard may be a solid piece of material or multiple pieces of material. Alternatively, the horizontal line of the bars may act as adequate backboard surface area while allowing for a gap. In such embodiments, players may see through the board.
The “beanbags” (30) of the present invention may be any projectile, preferably generally one or more of elastically deformable, compressible, and malleable.
In preferred embodiments, beanbags comprise a bag portion which is filled with a suitable filling (also referred to herein as “fill”) and sealed in a known manner so that the fill is retained within the bag portion. It will be understood that as used herein, “beanbags” in these embodiments need not be filled with actual beans; instead, any suitable fill may be used, as further taught herein and as will be readily understood by those of skill in the art. Fill may consist, for example, of rice, plastic beads, sand, carbonate or other similar materials.
In preferred embodiments of the present invention, the beanbags (30) may be cylindrical in shape with approximately 60% to 90% of fill by volume.
In certain preferred embodiments of the present invention, each beanbag should be marginally wider than the width of the apertures previously described so that when the beanbag contacts the wings of two opposing bars, both wings flex inward while exerting a capturing force on the beanbag in between the two bars. This configuration helps to avoid the undesirable situation where a beanbag, being sized so that it is too skinny, fails to forcibly flex inward the wings, resulting in insufficient grabbing force by the bars on the beanbag, in which case then the beanbag is likely to enter the slot, hit the backboard, and bounce back out of the slot.
Proper configuration of beanbag fill is also important for the beanbag to be adequately captured between two bars. For example, overly dense beanbags are stiff and thus more likely to bounce out of a slot while beanbags with proper fill density may have adequate flex and softness to facilitates capture. On the other hand, if beanbag fill is insufficiently dense, the beanbag may display uneven areas of fill and may become difficult to throw, which may inhibit capture. Thus, in preferred embodiments of the present invention beanbags may have the following characteristics, for example:
In preferred embodiments of the present invention, the beanbags may be of three different sizes, for example, and come in sets of four (one Large, two medium, and one small), with lengths of approximately 9.5, 7, and 5.5 inches all with an approximate width of 1.5 to 2 inches. The different sizes may influence game play and strategy, as will be described.
The beanbags disclosed herein can be made out of any suitable material with sufficient flexibility, including without limitation materials such as fabric, rubber, plastic and so on.
In preferred embodiments of the present invention, one or more players, who may be divided into teams (collectively referred to as “players”), throw a number of beanbags at a target apparatus with the purpose of successfully sticking or wedging the beanbags in between pairs of bars, or between a bar and a side rail.
Additionally, in preferred embodiments of the present invention, players may attempt to land a beanbag on a top grooves or other target areas. In this preferred embodiment, the slots, or area in-between the bars, may each have a point value. Additionally, in preferred embodiments of the present invention, a player or player's team having landed a beanbag higher than any other beanbag in a given slot, may be awarded predetermined points associated with that slot.
The beanbags may be thrown underhand or overhand, but the overhand method is recommended and more consistent.
In preferred embodiments of the present invention, players may stand approximately 8-12 feet from the game board.
Although the particular embodiments shown and described above will prove to be useful in many applications in the art to which the present invention pertains, further modifications of the present invention will occur to persons skilled in the art. All such modifications are deemed to be within the scope and spirit of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.
This application claims priority of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 63/624,581 filed Jan. 24, 2024 and incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63624581 | Jan 2024 | US |
