Patent Application
20050077372
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a straw holder for vertically supporting and orienting a drinking straw in the mouth of a bottle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Consumers of beverages under some circumstances may prefer to drink directly from a bottle through a straw. While driving a car, for example, bottled liquid is less subject to spillage, but tipping up the bottle for a drink interrupts a driver's view of the road. Use of a straw with a bottle addresses both the spillage and safety issues, but presents a problem when a too-short straw falls into a too-long bottle. In addition, carbon dioxide bubbles from a carbonated beverage may accumulate on the straw and cause it to rise out of the bottle. It would, therefore, be desirable to support the straw vertically in the bottle so that it cannot fall in or rise out. At the same time, it would be desirable to stabilize the angular position of the straw so that it cannot rotate within the mouth of the bottle. A device addressing this problem could also be used by invalids who may not have full use of their hands.
The problem of stabilizing a straw with respect to the lip of a cup is addressed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,493, which discloses a straw holder cut from a sheet material such as paper. The holder includes a retaining portion having an aperture which receives a standard drinking straw therethrough, and a pair of wings having ends which are clipped together and fitted against the outside of the cup.
The problem of stabilizing the position of a straw in a bottle by means of a simple fabricated device does not appear to have been solved. U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,156 discloses a drinking straw formed with an intake portion received in a bottle, a helical portion fitted around the neck of the bottle, and an outlet to which suction is applied by a consumer. The object is to stabilize the position of a straw for use by small children, but the circuitous path of the straw requires considerable effort to draw liquid. Further, the specially formed straw is a three dimensional object which is relatively expensive to manufacture and inconvenient to store and transport in any quantity. As such it is not suitable for use as a “give-away” item with a bottled beverage.
Other prior art describes straw holders for positioning a straw with respect to the lip of a cup. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,070,495 and 5,823,493. The latter discloses a straw holder which can be cut from a sheet material and relies on the straw itself to position the holder on the cup.
The object of the invention is to provide a simply and economically manufactured device for stabilizing the position of a straw received in the mouth of a bottle.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by a straw holder including a straw support portion having a central aperture dimensioned to receive a straw in an interference fit, and a bottle retaining portion surrounding the support portion and having at least two edge portions facing the straw support portion and spaced for engaging the thread ramps or flange of a bottle adjacent to its mouth, the support portion being attached to the bottle retaining portion by at least one connection located between the edge portions.
According to preferred embodiments, the edge portions are formed by respective slits which separate the straw support portion from the bottle retaining portion. The slits are preferably curved so that they conform to the profile of a bottle neck and have greater surface area for engaging a flange or the thread ramps of a bottle having a screw-on cap. The bottle retaining ramp may also be provided with turns lying radially outside of the slits, for additional retention around the bottle.
The straw holder according to the invention can be simply fabricated from a sheet material such as paper, cardboard, or plastic such as polyurethane. The sheet material is preferably die-cut to form slits which define the central aperture and the edge portions which provide bottle retention. The straw holder itself is preferably two dimensional when not in use, and may therefore be stacked to provide considerable economy of space. Since the straw holder according to the invention may be manufactured even more cheaply than lids for disposable cups, it is suitable for use as a “give-away”, optionally provided with a straw at the point of sale for a bottled beverage. As such, straw manufacturers might wish to provide the straw holder as a “value added” item.
The straw holder according to the invention may also include advertising media and may have a promotional item such as a CD attached. To this end, the bottle retaining portion may be provided with circumferentially spaced slits for engaging the circumferential edge of a CD.
Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. It should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.
In this and other embodiments described herein, the straw holder is made of a flexible sheet material such as cardboard or plastic, wherein the slits and other defining features are preferably formed by die-cutting.
The invention is not limited by the embodiments described above which are presented as examples only but can be modified in various ways within the scope of protection defined by the appended patent claims.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/684,882 filed on Oct. 14, 2003.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 10684882 | Oct 2003 | US |
| Child | 10888681 | Jul 2004 | US |
