The present device relates to a wallet and the like. More particularly, the device herein relates to a wallet configured for secure compartmentalized holding of credit cards, currency, and business cards and identification cards, all in secure but easily accessed compartments.
Conventional billfolds or wallets are employed by people throughout the world, to provide an organized container for users to carry currency, credit cards, identification, and business cards as well as other items. Such wallets are conventionally manufactured from animal skin or synthetic materials and are formed with pockets and slots for the user to employ for storage.
However, by their design, conventional wallets tend to become disorganized and also are subject to becoming ever more bulky over time. This makes items stored in such wallets hard to find. Further, as the wallet becomes ever more bulky, when stowed in a back pocket, they form a large bump on which the user must sit when in a chair or seated in a car or the like. This is most uncomfortable and where users lean or otherwise adjust their posture to accommodate the wallet on which they are sitting, it can cause long term medical issues from misaligned joints.
Still further, many users employ such wallets which are carried in a pocket separate from currency, which is also located in that pocket. When removing the wallet to find a credit card or business card, it can cause currency or change located in the same pocket to fall to the ground. Frequently, such goes unnoticed at the expense of the user.
The device herein disclosed and described provides a compact compartmentalized wallet which is easy to use on an ongoing basis.
The forgoing examples of wallets and billfolds are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive, and they do not imply any limitations on the invention described and claimed herein. Various other limitations of the related art are known or will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading and understanding of the specification below and the accompanying drawings.
The device herein provides a significant improvement in the design and function of wallets and billfolds. The wallet device herein is configured to be light weight and compact to easily fit in a pants pocket of a user without forming a significant and unsightly bulge. In all modes of the device, the wallet features a light weight body which is configured with a plurality of compartments where each is configured for ease of use.
In all modes of the device, a housing or body is configured to provide separate storage compartments which are adapted to hold items conventionally carried by users of conventional wallets and billfolds. A first such compartment is configured for secure holding of a plurality of credit cards and/or credit card sized items. This first compartment is formed on a first side of the body of the device and features two different openings allowing input and removal of the credit cards from either side of the body. Once inserted into the first compartment, a pair of biased arms or flexible members, on opposing sides of the first compartment, biasly contact against the end surface of inserted credit cards and the like, to hold them within the first compartment.
By providing two openings and a biased contact against inserted cards, the device also allows the user to shuffle amongst the cards held in the first compartment, without totally removing them, to find a single card amongst the plurality to remove it. The remainder of the cards in the first compartment are easily repositioned in an aligned stack within the first compartment once the chosen card has been removed.
The opposing openings to the first compartment are provided by flexible members on opposing sides of the compartment. A first of the flexible members has a first end engaged with the body of the wallet and extends to a movable distal end positioned on one side of the first opening. A second of the flexible members is engaged at a first end to the body on the same side on which the distal end of the first flexible member is positioned. This second flexible member extends to a distal end which is positioned on one side of the second opening.
With this configuration, the first flexible member will deflect upon engagement of a card into the first compartment through the first opening, and the second flexible member will deflect and allow insertion of a card into the first compartment through the second opening. The distal ends of both flexible members will each contact one side of the stacked cards positioned in the first compartment, thereby holding them in place in a biased compressive engagement between the distal ends of both flexible members. A shuffling of the cards back and forth can be accomplished to find one card amongst the plurality for removal, which can be removed without removing the rest of the credit cards held in the first compartment.
A second compartment is provided which is positioned within a recess surmounted by a rear wall on one side thereof and a perimeter sidewall of the body about the perimeter of the formed recess. This recess is configured for insertion of folded currency.
A biasing panel may be positioned within the second compartment. This biasing panel is sized substantially the same or at least half the size of the area of the second compartment. The biasing panel is formed in a corrugated shaped or curved or non planar shape and of material which bends upon insertion of currency or other items into the second compartment. Spring steel or flexible plastic are material for such.
The biasing panel in operative position communicates force from its curved or bent form against any currency placed in the second compartment between the rear wall and the credit card held in the first compartment which is adjacent the second compartment. The biasing panel, thus, holds the currency or other item in a biased engagement between the biasing panel and the credit card placed on the opposite side of the second compartment from the rear wall of the body of the device.
A third compartment is formed between the biasing panel and the rear wall of the device. Slots on opposing sides of the rear wall of the body of the device, provide access to the recess formed into the body defining third compartment. Business cards, or identification cards or the like, inserted from either slot into the third compartment are held in the slot by the width thereof being substantially equal to a conventional business card and may be held by a biased compressive engagement between the biasing panel and the rear wall of the body of the device.
The length of the rear wall for the distance between the opposing slots is preferably shorter than the length of a business card or credit card. This allows side portions of credit cards or identification cards and the like, when inserted into the third compartment, to extend from both opposing slots. These side portions provide a gripping area to the user to remove the respective card from the third compartment by pulling it therefrom. Notches formed into rear surfaces of both the first and second flexible members provide a gap adjacent the slots providing access to the third compartment. These notches provide space for a finger of the user to contact one side of the cards held in the third compartment more easily, to grasp and pull them.
Optionally a belt clip can be positioned in an engagement to the body adjacent the rear wall. This will allow the user to clip the body and the device onto a belt. The body can also be adapted for removable engagement to a cell phone or the case engaging around a cell phone.
With respect to the above description, before explaining at least one preferred embodiment of the herein disclosed compartmentalized wallet invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangement of the components in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The wallet invention herein described and shown is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways which will be obvious to those skilled in the art. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for designing of other compartmentalized wallet devices and for carrying out the several purposes of the present disclosed device. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent construction and methodology insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
As used in the claims to describe the various inventive aspects and embodiments, “comprising” means including, but not limited to, whatever follows the word “comprising”. Thus, use of the term “comprising” indicates that the listed elements are required or mandatory, but that other elements are optional and may or may not be present. By “consisting of” is meant including, and limited to, whatever follows the phrase “consisting of”. Thus, the phrase “consisting of” indicates that the listed elements are required or mandatory, and that no other elements may be present. By “consisting essentially of” is meant including any elements listed after the phrase, and limited to other elements that do not interfere with or contribute to the activity or action specified in the disclosure for the listed elements. Thus, the phrase “consisting essentially of” indicates that the listed elements are required or mandatory, but that other elements are optional and may or may not be present depending upon whether or not they affect the activity or action of the listed elements. The term “substantially” when employed herein, means plus or minus twenty-percent unless otherwise specifically designated in a different range.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a wallet having secure but easily accessed compartments for holding credit cards, currency, and other card type materials therein.
It is a further object to provide such a wallet device which is compact in size to minimize the area occupied within a pocket in which it is carried.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present compartmentalized wallet herein, as well as the advantages thereof over existing prior art, which will become apparent from the description to follow, are accomplished by the improvements described in this specification and hereinafter described in the following detailed description which fully discloses the invention, but should not be considered as placing limitations thereon.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, illustrate some but not the only or exclusive examples of embodiments and/or features of the disclosed wallet. It is intended that the embodiments and figures disclosed herein are to be considered illustrative of the invention herein rather than limiting in any fashion.
In the drawings:
In this description, the directional prepositions of up, upwardly, down, downwardly, front, back, top, upper, bottom, lower, left, right and other such terms refer to the device as it is oriented and appears in the drawings and are used for convenience only and such are not intended to be limiting or to imply that the device has to be used or positioned in any particular orientation.
Now referring to drawings in
A first opening 18 is formed on a first side of the body 16 opposite a second opening 20 (
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Of course the device 10 will function with only the first flexible member 30 on an opposite side of the first compartment 14 of the body 16 from a fixed sidewall 31 which would replace the second flexible member 32. Such a configuration will still impart a biased engagement to any credit cards 12 inserted into the first compartment 14 to hold the in place. However, two flexible members are preferred to provide balanced force and ease of engagement and disengagement of the credit cards 12. Secondary cards 34, such as business cards, drivers licenses, or other identification cards are shown with end portions extending from slots 36 communicating into the third compartment 38 (
In
Central portions of the facing sides of each of the first flexible member 30 and the second flexible member 32 have a rectangular recess formed therein. The first rectangular recess 42, shown in
The elongated recessed surface 43 has a width, preferably, to allow for stacking of a plurality of credit cards 12 where each in the stack will contact a portion of the recessed surface 43. The second recess 44 (
A distance between the first recessed surface 43 and the second recessed surface 45 is substantially equal to or just slightly larger than the longitudinal length of a credit card which currently is preferred as between 3.3 inches to 3.5 inches with 3.36 inches being a current favorite distance. Experimentation has shown that with the first recessed surface 43 distanced from the second recessed surface 45, with both the first flexible member 30 and the second flexible member 32, both in a static or in an un-flexed position, that the credit cards 12 are held in the first compartment 14 in a biased engagement between the first flexible member 30 and second flexible member 32. Further projections 35 (
Also preferred in all modes of the device, and as shown in
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As noted, the biasing panel 48 is formed to be undulating or curving or angled such that portions of it project out of plane. In this fashion, when formed of elastic or flexible material such as spring steel or polymeric material, portions of the biasing panel 48 will rise or project toward and into the area of the second compartment 28. With currency 26 positioned therein, the biasing panel 48 will hold it in a compressed engagement between the projecting portion of the biasing panel 48 and the credit card 12 located at the open end of the cavity 50 in the body 16. End sections 49 of the biasing panel 48, at opposite ends thereof, run substantially normal to the plane of the biasing panel 48 and project upward. Each of the end sections 49, as seen in
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The mounting plate 64 is connected to the cell phone mount 60 and has a gap 66 therearound between it and the rear side of the cell phone mount 60. The mounding plate 64 is sized substantially the same or equal to the size of a conventional credit card 12. In this fashion with the mounting plate 64 substantially sized with the same dimensions as a conventional credit card 12, the body 16 can be slid upon and compressibly engage with the mounting plate 64 in the same fashion as a credit card 12 thereby allowing the body 16 loaded with credit cards to be connected to a cell phone 62 for carrying therewith.
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It should be noted that any of the different depicted and described configurations and components of the wallet device herein disclosed, can be employed with any other configuration or component shown and described as part of the device herein. Additionally, while the present invention has been described herein with reference to particular embodiments thereof and/or steps in the method of production or use, a latitude of modifications, various changes and substitutions are intended in the foregoing disclosure, and it will be appreciated that in some instance some features, or configurations, of the invention could be employed without a corresponding use of other features without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims. All such changes, alternations and modifications as would occur to those skilled in the art are considered to be within the scope of this invention as broadly defined in the appended claims.
Further, the purpose of any abstract of this specification is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the public generally, and especially the scientists, engineers, and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application. Any such abstract is neither intended to define the invention of the application, which is measured by the claims, nor is it intended to be limiting, as to the scope of the invention in any way.
This application is a Continuation in Part to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/776,408 filed on Jan. 29, 2020, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/798,097 filed on Jan. 29, 2019, both of which are incorporated herein in their entirety by this reference thereto.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62798097 | Jan 2019 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 16776408 | Jan 2020 | US |
Child | 18236336 | US |