Hat clip

Abstract

An improved hat clip.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to an improved clip for securing a hat to a person's clothing and/or belt.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Once a cap is removed from a person's head, the most obvious question would be where to put said hat. If at home, the hat can be placed on a rack or simply on some solid surface. When outdoors or at some remote location, there is not a convenient place to put a hat once removed from the head. You can hold the hat in your hand but then that just leaves one hand free for other tasks. With baseball and other hats with bills, one can lodge the hat between the person and his/her pants. Generally, this is not a very secure place and can result in the hat becoming dislodged and most inconveniently, lost.

U.S. Pat. No. 10,058,141 issued to Richard Liu represents one solution to securing at hat when not being worn. In Liu, the means used is a spring which secures the hat. As can be appreciated by hat wearers, the problem here is that over time the spring mechanism wears out. U.S. Pat. No. 9,9510,634, Inventors Brian and Andrea Bookbinder utilizes a lanyard to secure the hat but as can be seen in the drawings for such patent, the lanyard only works for hats with straps to which the lanyard can attach. U.S. Pat. No. 7,578,007 issued to William Charles McIntyre, describes a hat clip primarily used to attach protective material to the hat; not attaching the hat to a person's article of clothing. Additionally, the McIntyre patent once again employs the use of a spring which can wear out. U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,638, issued to B. Jim Woloshen, describes a hat clip to attach a hat to a person's belt. As with several of the other patents mentioned above, Woloshen uses a spring whose mechanical deficiencies have been described.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a secure hat attachment or clip to be used by placing said clip on a person's pants, or belt, and then placing the bill of the hat into the tangs of the clip without the use of a mechanical spring. Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description when viewed in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which set forth certain embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 contains side, top and angled views of hat clip of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein. It should be understood, however, that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. Therefore, the details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as the basis for the claims and as a basis for teaching one skilled in the art how to make and/or use the invention.

As can be seen in FIG. 1, the clip of the present invention [1] is made, generally, in the shape of a “U”, having a flat inside surface [3] and curved outside surface [2] with a plurality of tangs [4] which when compressed, secure the clip to a person's belt, pants or other clothing article being worn, into which the bill of the hat is placed. The distance between each of the tangs [4] is just sufficient to allow placement of the hat bill as well as the clothing article being worn. The act of placing the bill between the 2 tangs [4] causes the tangs to exert pressure upon the bill thus holding the bill in place. The same pressure is exerted by the tangs fit over the clothing article. While 4 tangs [4] are shown in FIG. 1, this is just a minimum and more than 4 tangs can be used. The hat clip of the present invention [1] can be made of any material pliable enough to allow compression of tangs but rigid enough to support placement on a person's clothing article. Material such as plastic can be used.

While the preferred embodiments have been shown and described, it will be understood that there is no intent to limit the invention by such disclosure, but rather, is intended to cover all modifications and alternate constructions falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A hat clip comprising tangs which clip to the edge of a person's belt, pants edge or other clothing item further comprising tangs into which the bill of a hat is placed.

2. The hat clip of claim 1 having a flat inside surface with a curved outside surface.

3. The hat clip of claim 1 wherein the number of tangs is at least 4.

4. The hat clip of claim 1 wherein the distance between at least 2 tangs is sufficient to allow placement of a hat bill.

5. The hat clip of claim 3 wherein the distance between at least 2 tangs is sufficient to allow secure attachment to an article of clothing.