Patent Application
20130075351
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1.0 Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to beverage container holders adaptable for use with multiple beverage containers, and in multiple soft and hard surfaced locations including couches, beds, vehicles and picnic blankets over grass.
2.0 Description of the Related Art
People frequently enjoy various types of beverages in multiple different locations. These locations could include sitting or lying on couches of varying cushion thickness to read, watching TV in bed, having picnics on a blanket covering a grassy field, resting on the beach sand and driving in a vehicle. Furthermore, one person may be drinking from a traditional handled coffee mug, while another may be drinking from a stemmed beverage container including, but not limited to, a wine glass, and both desire a unified convenient location to rest their different beverage containers. Additionally, while enjoying the beverage it is desirable to be able to listen to digital music in these same locations and store personal effects including, but not limited to, remote controls. However, all these locations present unstable beverage container holder bearing surfaces with a high probability of spilling since all previous beverage container holders are designed with large contact surfaces between the beverage container holder and the support or bearing surfaces. These large contact areas then transfer large forces from the supporting surface to the beverage container resting in the beverage container holder, thereby increasing the likelihood of liquid spilling.
Various beverage container holders or digital music players have been designed to fit into existing car beverage container holders, or sit on top of couch cushions, or be placed between couch cushions for support. For example, US Pat. App. No. 2011/0286622 A1 describes a speaker device insertable into an existing vehicle beverage container holder. However, this invention does not include the ability to hold beverages, it simply enables playing of digital music via a speaker device mounted into a vehicle beverage container holder.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,678 describes a beverage container holder capable of being mounted on the arm of a chair and hanging from said arm. However, this invention also does not remove the spilling forces from being transmitted to the beverage container, it also does not allow deployment on vertical locations such as between a bedspring and mattress, or provide the user with a digital music listening capability, or provide a convenient storage area for personal items, or support multiple beverage container designs.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,556,230 B2 describes a beverage container holder designed to rest on a horizontal surface such as a couch cushion or table. However, this invention does not isolate the beverage from the external spilling forces, it also does not allow deployment on vertical locations such as between a bedspring and mattress. It also does not facilitate digital music playing or personal item storage.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,231,094 B1 describes a beverage container holder capable of being clamped to various surfaces however it does not enable the user to rest a beverage on a horizontal or vertical surface, or isolate the beverage from spilling forces, or provide personal effects storage, or digital music playing.
Beverage container holder prior art embodiments do not facilitate use of the beverage container holder in multiple horizontal and vertically mounted locations and do not mitigate transmission of beverage spilling forces from the mounting location. The prior art also fail to simultaneously accommodate both stemmed and non-stemmed beverage containers including, but not limited to, both stemmed wine glasses and non-stemmed coffee cups, or provide a storage location for personal items including, but not limited to, remote control players and eyeglasses, and also fail to accommodate digital music players and speakers.
In view of the foregoing, a multifunction beverage container holder is desired which provides stable support for multiple beverage container forms including, but not limited to, coffee cups, wine glasses and convenience store “go cups”; storage for personal items including, but not limited to, mp3 players, remote controls, pens, reading glasses; beverage support in multiple orientations and on multiple stable or unstable surfaces and bearing locations: and enabling amplification and transmission of digital music to the proximate person. This multifunction beverage container holder is described more particularly in the following text.
The foregoing examples of related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive, and they do not imply any limitations on the inventions described herein. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.
The following embodiments and aspects thereof are described and illustrated in conjunction with systems, tools and methods, which are meant to be exemplary and illustrative, not limiting in scope. In various embodiments, one or more of the above-described problems have been reduced or eliminated, while other embodiments are directed to other improvements.
An embodiment of the present invention proposes to reduce or overcome one or more of the problems or shortcomings inherent in prior beverage container holder art, and further to provide a more useful and highly accepted improved multifunction beverage container holder.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides an apparatus that will simultaneously accept both stemmed beverage containers including, but not limited to, wine glasses, and non-stemmed beverage containers including, but not limited to, coffee cups and large convenience store soda cups; is portable, stable and mitigates spilling of the held beverages; can be conveniently utilized in multiple locations including, but not limited to, a couch, bed, picnic blanket, vehicle, beach sand; enables storage of personal effects such as remote controls; facilitates playing of music from a digital music player, and incorporates locations for indices including, but not limited to, team logos or names.
One embodiment of the present invention is directed to an apparatus that maintains one or more beverage containers in an upright position on multiple stable and unstable surfaces and in multiple orientations both horizontally including, but not limited to, between bed mattress and box springs and vertically including, but not limited to, between couch cushions of varying thickness or impressed into beach sand, wherein the multifunction beverage container holder housing is removed from direct contact with the bearing or support surface through the use of slender supporting elongated shafts, commonly known as legs, which can be attached to the beverage container holder housing in multiple horizontal and vertical orientations. These elongated shafts also mitigate the influence of external beverage spilling forces by minimizing the contact area between the elongated shaft and the support or bearing surface and also by distancing the main beverage container holder housing from contact with the bearing or support surface forces. Additional spillage force damping can be obtained by inserting springs or similar force damping apparatus between the supporting elongated shafts and the beverage container holder housing.
Additional features and advantages of the invention may be learned by practice of the invention, and will be set forth in the descriptions that follow and in part will be apparent from the description and accompanying figures which illustrate by way of example the principles of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims thereof as well as the appended drawings. It is understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed, and include example implementations which are not a limiting statement of the scope of the invention.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, illustrate some, but not the only or exclusive, example embodiments and/or features. It is intended that the embodiments and figures disclosed herein are to be considered illustrative rather than limiting.
The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the embodiments thereof as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present invention may be practiced without some or all of the specific details. In other instances, well known operations have not been described in detail so not to unnecessarily obscure the embodiments of the present invention. It is intended that the embodiments and figures disclosed herein are to be considered illustrative rather than limiting.
A preferred, but not limiting, embodiment relates to a multifunction beverage container holder apparatus containing one or more beverage container receptacles capable of maintaining stemmed or non-stemmed beverage containers in an upright position while mitigating or damping transmission of beverage spilling forces from the support or bearing surface to the beverage container by separating the beverage container holder housing from direct contact with the support or bearing surface and minimizing the beverage container holder elongated shaft contact area with the support or bearing surface. The beverage container holder can also be positioned in multiple horizontal and vertical locations, including unstable bearing or supporting surfaces. The beverage container holder for example could be vertically positioned above the cushions of a couch and raised off the couch cushions by two elongated shafts. The beverage container holder elongated shafts could also be pressed vertically into beach sand, thus raising the beverage container holder off the sand by the two elongated shafts. The beverage container holder could also be horizontally supported between a bed mattress and box spring and separated from the mattress by two elongated shafts, or clamped onto a bicycle handlebar by inserting the horizontally configured elongated shafts into a clamping device attached to the handlebars. The beverage container holder could also be stabilized by inserting the two elongated shafts in opposing directions thereby minimizing, or damping, tipping forces transmitted from an unstable surface including, but not limited to, a picnic blanket or grass.
Due to the reduced contact area presented to the bearing or supporting surface by the slim elongated shalt design, the elongated shafts then mitigate, or dampen, transmission of beverage spilling forces both laterally and vertically from the supporting or bearing surface into the beverage container holder, thereby providing greater beverage container stability and minimizing beverage spillage. Additional force damping may be obtained by utilizing damping apparatuses including, but not limited to, springs or elastomeric compounds connecting the supporting elongated shafts and beverage container holder housing.
In another embodiment, one or more deployable stemmed beverage container support arms are rotated into the horizontal deployed position and provide support for stemmed beverage containers including, but not limited to, wine glasses, while non-stemmed beverage containers including, but not limited to, coffee cups and large convenience store cups can be simultaneously supported in the central one or more beverage container receptacles. Alternately, these deployable stemmed beverage container support arms could be fixed in the horizontal deployed position to provide the required stemmed beverage container support.
Beverage container holder housing 101 also incorporates multiple stemmed beverage container support arm recessed storage areas 108 for storing a beverage container holding apparatus including, but not limited to, multiple deployable stemmed beverage container support arms 107. When rotated into the horizontal deployed position, the deployable stemmed beverage container support arm 107 is intended to support stemmed beverage containers including, but not limited to, wine glasses and brandy snifters. The beverage container holder housing 101 also incorporates a recessed personal effects storage receptacle 106 sized to receive and hold personal effects including, but not limited to, digital music players, TV remote controls, or reading glasses.
In one embodiment illustrated in
Each beverage container receptacle 102, and the recessed personal effects storage receptacle 106 have a raised bottom surface platform 203 which protrudes into the cavity and provides a resting surface for inserted objects, thereby raising the inserted object above any liquids spilled into the beverage container receptacle 102 or personal effects storage receptacle 106.
One embodiment of the invention includes a sound amplification electronics and batteries compartment 201 placed within the beverage container holder housing 101 and connected via wires or wirelessly to beverage container holder speakers 200 which are affixed to the beverage container holder housing 101. The sound amplification electronics and batteries are also connected wirelessly or with wires which pass through a hole between top and bottom surfaces 205 into the personal effects storage receptacle 106 and can be connected to the digital music player 105, in
One embodiment of the flexible beverage container support 103 device includes a flexible retainer recessed area 606 which receives the deployable stemmed beverage container support arm 107 stemmed beverage container support arm fingers 600, and provides a resistive friction retaining force along the vertical flexible retainer friction surface 607 when the deployable stemmed beverage container support arm 107 is stored in the stemmed beverage container support arm recessed storage area 108 of beverage container holder housing 101.
The deployable stemmed beverage container support arm 107 is formed of parallel stemmed beverage support arm fingers 600 which may be curved in multiple axes to approximately match curvature of the stemmed beverage container and also the exterior surface of the beverage container holder housing 101,and also includes a stemmed beverage container slot 601 enabling insertion of the stem of a beverage container including, but not limited to, a wine glass or brandy snifter.
Alternate deployable stemmed beverage container support arm 107 embodiments could include integral hinges and other devices enabling rotation around an axis, adhesive compounds enhancing friction between the deployable stemmed beverage container support arm 107 and the stemmed beverage container, or the deployable stemmed beverage container support arms 107 could simply be fixed in place on the beverage container holder housing 101.
The elongated shaft 109 may incorporate a keyway 802 along the X axis and includes rounded ends 801 to facilitate insertion between bearing surfaces, including but not limited to, couch cushions and bed mattresses, and also facilitate insertion into the elongated shaft receiving cavity 202,
The multifunction beverage container holder 100 herein described may be manufactured from injection molded plastics and elastomeric materials including, but not limited to, nylon or polyethylene, however other suitable materials including, but not limited to, stamped aluminum or machined steel may alternatively be employed.
The foregoing description of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that there are various alterations, permutations, and equivalents, which fall within the scope of this invention and may be possible in light of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention in various embodiments and various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It should also be noted that there are many alternative ways of implementing the methods and apparatus of the present invention. It is therefore intended that the following appended claims be interpreted as including all such alternates, permutations, equivalents and alternative embodiments as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention except insofar as limited by the prior art.
