OFF THE FLOOR FASHION HANDBAG

Abstract

An off the floor fashion handbag utilizes a suspension pocket integrated into an upper portion of a bag sidewall and containing a relatively thin, but high powered attracter (such as a magnet) that has sufficient attractive force to hold the off the floor fashion handbag and its contents tightly against an attachment surface that attracts a magnet so that the bag is suspended therefrom. The high powered attracter can be a strong magnet made from neodymium or any similar material that can make a strong, relatively permanent magnet. The suspension pocket can be inaccessible by being built into the handbag sidewall permanently; for example, it can be located between an outer layer and an inner liner of the fashion handbag. In an alternate embodiment, the suspension pocket can be user-accessible so that the owner can remove and/or replace the high powered attracter as needed.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates generally to the field of fashion handbags, and more particularly, to an off the floor fashion handbag that can be suspended from a table, wall, etc. by means of a high powered attracter (such as a magnet).

BACKGROUND

In today's world, people often carry with them a handbag, clutch, purse, diaper bag, backpack, tote, and many other similar types of relatively small sacks (collectively, “bags”) to hold essentials such as keys, wallets, medications, makeup, etc. However, when both hands are needed for other activities, it can pose a problem: how to hold onto the bag if it has no straps, etc. that would otherwise allow it to be hung from the body? Alternatively, even if a strap or handle is present, there are times when it is simply inconvenient or impractical to employ the strap/handle. These problems become much more significant if there is no clean, secure surface on which to set the bag, for example, when one is in a restroom stall. Furthermore, there are times when it is much more convenient to have the bag hung at whatever height is desired in a nearby location so one can search through it with both hands, again, without setting the bag down on the floor or other unclean and/or inconvenient surface.

What is needed is an enhanced bag that can support itself off of the floor, table, or other generally horizontal surface without additional straps or other encumbrances so that the bag stays clean and the contents of the bag remain within proximity to the owner without requiring space on a table, counter, lap, or other not necessarily convenient surface.

SUMMARY

One embodiment of the present invention comprises an off the floor fashion handbag that utilizes a suspension pocket integrated into an upper portion of a bag sidewall and containing a relatively thin, but high powered attracter (such as a magnet) that has sufficient attractive force to hold the off the floor fashion handbag and its contents tightly against an attachment surface (which can be vertical, angled, horizontal, curved, etc.) which attracts a magnet so that it is suspended therefrom. The high powered attracter can be a strong magnet made from neodymium or any similar material that can be a strong, relatively permanent magnet. The suspension pocket can be inaccessible by being built into the handbag sidewall permanently; for example, it can be located between an outer layer and an inner liner of the fashion handbag. In an alternate embodiment, the suspension pocket can be user-accessible so that the owner can remove and/or replace the high powered attracter as needed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The aforementioned and other features and objects of the present invention and the manner of attaining them will become more apparent and the invention itself will be best understood by reference to the following descriptions of a preferred embodiment and other embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a side elevation view of an exemplary embodiment of an off the floor fashion handbag suspending itself off of the floor from a table edge;

FIG. 2 illustrates a top plan view of an exemplary embodiment of an off the floor fashion handbag suspending itself off of the floor from the edge of a railing;

FIG. 3 shows a top plan view in cross section of an exemplary embodiment of an off the floor fashion handbag;

FIG. 4 illustrates a top plan view in cross section of another exemplary embodiment of an off the floor fashion handbag;

FIG. 5 shows a top plan view in cross section of yet another exemplary embodiment of an off the floor fashion handbag;

FIG. 6 illustrates a side elevation view of an exemplary embodiment of an off the floor fashion handbag highlighting an accessible suspension pocket;

FIG. 7 shows a side elevation view of another exemplary embodiment of an off the floor fashion handbag highlighting an accessible suspension pocket; and

FIG. 8 illustrates a side elevation view of another exemplary embodiment of an off the floor fashion handbag highlighting an integrated suspension pocket.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following discussion, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that embodiments may be practiced without such specific details. Furthermore, lists and/or examples may be provided and should be interpreted as exemplary only and in no way limiting embodiments to only those examples.

Exemplary embodiments are described below and in the accompanying Figures. The following detailed description provides a review of the drawing Figures in order to provide a thorough understanding of, and an enabling description for, these embodiments. One having ordinary skill in the art will understand that in some cases well-known structures and functions have not been shown or described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the description of the embodiments.

Turning now to the Drawings, FIG. 1 shows a side elevation view of an exemplary embodiment of an off the floor fashion handbag 100 suspending itself off of the floor from an attachment surface 10 (in this example, the attachment surface 10 is a table edge). The table edge 10 can be made from a material that attracts a magnet and the owner of the off the floor fashion handbag (hereinafter OFF bag) has simply positioned the OFF bag 100 so that the suspension pocket within the OFF bag 100 is pressed against the edge of the table 10. The high powered attracter in the suspension pocket is attracted to the table edge 10 and effectively clamps the OFF bag 100 to the table edge 10. In this way, the OFF bag 100 is suspended off of the floor, does not require table space (or lap space), and remains readily and quickly accessible to its owner.

The suspension pocket can be integrated into an upper portion of a handbag sidewall and should contain a strong, but relatively thin high powered attracter (such as a magnet) that has sufficient attractive force to hold the OFF bag 100 and its contents tightly against the magnet-attracting surface. There are many different materials from which strong magnets are constructed. In one embodiment, the OFF bag 100 utilizes a neodymium magnet or any similar material that can be a strong, relatively permanent magnet. A neodymium magnet is a permanent magnet made from an alloy of neodymium, iron and boron to form the Nd2Fe14B tetragonal crystalline structure.

The suspension pocket can be inaccessible by being built into the handbag sidewall permanently; for example, it can be located between an outer layer and an inner liner of the fashion handbag as illustrated in FIG. 1 where the suspension pocket is not visible. In an alternate embodiment, the suspension pocket can be user-accessible so that the owner can remove and/or replace the high powered attracter as needed. In such an embodiment, the suspension pocket can be located on the outside of the OFF bag or it can be within the OFF bag. However, the more layers of materials between the high powered attracter and the attracting surface, the stronger the attracter needs to be in order to support a given weight of the OFF bag and its contents.

FIG. 2 illustrates a top plan view of an exemplary embodiment of an off the floor fashion handbag 100 suspending itself off of the floor from an attachment surface 10 (here, the the edge of a railing). In this illustration, the OFF bag 100 has a zippered top closure 198 and the suspension pocket is not externally visible. The external surface covering 105 of the OFF bag 100 is illustrated in FIG. 2. There are many possible configurations for an external covering, any of which can be used without departing from the scope of the invention.

FIG. 3 shows a top plan view in cross section of an exemplary embodiment of an off the floor fashion handbag 100. In this illustration, the OFF bag 100 is shown utilizing the interior suspension pocket 160 embodiment. The suspension pocket 160 is that space between the handbag outer material 110 and the handbag inner lining 140. Within that suspension pocket 160 is the high powered attracter 130. Note that the handbag outer material 110 is pressed between the high powered attracter and the ferrous metal surface (here, the vertical surface 10) which attracts the attracter. Thus, for a stronger holding force, the handbag outer material 110 should be designed so as to minimally block/interfere with magnetic forces; this can be accomplished by minimizing the thickness of the outer material and using materials that do not impact the magnetic forces. Additionally, since the handbag outer material 110 of the OFF bag 100 is pressing against the surface that attracts the magnet, the coefficient of friction for the outer material should be high so that the OFF bag 100 does not slide easily down the side of the ferrous metal surface 10.

FIG. 4 illustrates a top plan view in cross section of another exemplary embodiment of an off the floor fashion handbag 100. In this embodiment, a two part magnet suspension system is used instead of the single magnet system shown in FIG. 3. Here, the high-strength attracter 130 again resides within the suspension pocket 160 of the OFF bag 100. The external attracter 120 is attracted to the high powered attracter 130 and is held in place by the magnetic attractive forces therebetween.

In an alternate embodiment, the high powered attracter 130 can be placed where the external attracter 120 is shown in FIG. 4 and another magnet 120 or even a ferrous metal/material that attracts a magnet can be placed on the inside of the handbag in the suspension pocket 160. In such a configuration, the outer high powered attracter 130 is attached to the OFF bag by the attractive force between the outer attracter 130 and the inner magnet/magnet-attracting-material 120 and the OFF bag is then held to the table, rail, etc. by the attractive force of the high powered attracter 130 directly contacting the ferrous metal surface/magnet-attracting surface 10 of the object from which the OFF bag is suspended.

In an embodiment having an outer attracter 120, the outer magnet can be shaped and/or colored so as to appear decorative since it is visible on the outside of the OFF bag. For example, the outer attracter 120 can be made to resemble a star, an animal (e.g., a koala), or some other decorative device or “bling”.

FIG. 5 shows a top plan view in cross section of yet another exemplary embodiment of an off the floor fashion handbag 100. This embodiment is similar to that shown in FIG. 4, but instead of using a high powered attracter, magnet or magnet-attracting-material located within a suspension pocket which is itself located between the handbag's outer material 110 and inner lining 140, the embodiment in FIG. 5 locates the inner high powered attracter 130 inwards from the inner lining, within the interior of the OFF bag itself. The advantage of this configuration is that the user can simply remove both the outer magnet and the inner magnet (or magnet attracting material) without having to access a suspension pocket sandwiched between material layers, which can make the suspension pocket difficult to access.

Although the outer magnet 120 in FIG. 5 is shown as being a simply-shaped, flat magnet, it can also be shaped to have a top lip or otherwise to have an “L” shaped cross section. Such a shape can better grab the corner edge of a table, counter, etc. In yet another embodiment, two outer magnets can be used, one employing the top lip and the other being flat so that the best one can be used for a given application. For example, the top lip magnet can be used to suspend the OFF bag from a table edge corner while the flat magnet can be used when suspending the OFF bag from a metal sidewall of a bathroom stall.

FIG. 6 illustrates a side elevation view of an exemplary embodiment of an off the floor fashion handbag 100 highlighting an accessible suspension pocket 160. In this embodiment, the suspension pocket 160 has a flap which folds over to seal the pocket and keep the high powered attracter (not shown in FIG. 6, see early FIGs.) securely inside. The flap can utilize any type of suitable closing/latching mechanism 162. Here, a pair of hook-and-loop closures are illustrated as the closing/latching mechanism 162. The suspension pocket 160 can be located on the external surface covering 105 of the OFF bag 100 as shown in FIG. 6. In other embodiments, the suspension pocket 160 can be located on the interior surface (see FIG. 7 for an example), or between the outer material and inner lining (see FIG. 3 for an example).

FIG. 7 shows a side elevation view of another exemplary embodiment of an off the floor fashion handbag 100 highlighting an accessible suspension pocket 160 located on the inside of a handbag inner lining 140. In this embodiment, the suspension pocket 160 can be opened and closed using a zipper. Because of the sheer attractive power of the high strength attracter within the suspension pocket 160, the OFF bag 100 can have a number of layers between the suspension pocket 160 and the attachment surface 10 to which the bag 100 is to be attached.

FIG. 8 illustrates a side elevation view of another exemplary embodiment of an off the floor fashion handbag 100 highlighting an integrated suspension pocket. In the illustration in FIG. 8, the broken line rectangle represents an interior suspension pocket hidden between the outer material layer 105 and the inner lining layer 140 (not shown in FIG. 8, see earlier FIGs.) of an OFF bag 100.

While particular embodiments of the invention have been described and disclosed in the present application, it should be understood that any number of permutations, modifications, or embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention. Accordingly, it is not the intention of this application to limit this invention in any way except as by the appended claims.

Particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspects of the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology is being redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics, features, or aspects of the invention with which that terminology is associated, unless specifically noted. In general, the terms used in the following claims should not be construed to limit the invention to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification, unless the above “Detailed Description” section explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope of the invention encompasses not only the disclosed embodiments, but also all equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the invention.

The above detailed description of the embodiments of the invention is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise embodiment or form disclosed herein or to the particular field of usage mentioned in this disclosure. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the invention are described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the invention, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. Also, the teachings of the invention provided herein can be applied to other systems, not necessarily the system described above. The elements and acts of the various embodiments described above can be combined to provide further embodiments.

In light of the above “Detailed Description,” the inventor may make changes to the invention. While the detailed description outlines possible embodiments of the invention and discloses the best mode contemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, the invention may be practiced in a myriad of ways. Thus, implementation details may vary considerably while still being encompassed by the spirit of the invention as disclosed by the inventor. As discussed herein, specific terminology used when describing certain features or aspects of the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology is being redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics, features, or aspects of the invention with which that terminology is associated, unless so specified.

While certain aspects of the invention are presented below in certain claim forms, the inventor contemplates the various aspects of the invention in any number of claim forms. Accordingly, the inventor reserves the right to add additional claims after filing the application to pursue such additional claim forms for other aspects of the invention.

The above specification, examples and data provide a description of the structure and use of exemplary implementations of the described articles of manufacture and methods. It is important to note that many implementations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. An off the floor fashion handbag, comprising: a handbag outer material defining an exterior wall of the handbag and having an external surface covering;a handbag inner lining attached in at least one location to the exterior wall;a suspension pocket located between the inner lining and the exterior wall and forming an interior space therebetween;the suspension pocket configured to hold therein a high powered attracter; andthe high powered attracter comprising a high strength magnet placed within the suspension pocket and configured such that the off the floor fashion handbag is suspended by placing the suspension pocket in proximity to an attachment surface thereby causing the high powered attracter within the suspension pocket to be attracted to the attachment surface, thereby sandwiching the outer material between the high powered attracter and the attachment surface and suspending the off the floor fashion handbag thereby so that the handbag does not rest on a bottom portion of the off the floor fashion handbag, but instead is suspended from the attachment surface.

2. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 1 wherein the attachment surface comprises one of a second magnet and a surface which attracts magnets.

3. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 1, further comprising: an external attracter positioned on the external surface covering and attracted to the high powered attracter by magnetic forces such that the external attracter is held in place by the magnetic attractive forces therebetween and the external attracter can be placed against the attachment surface to suspend the handbag from the attachment surface.

4. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 2, further comprising: an external attracter positioned on the external surface covering and attracted to the high powered attracter by magnetic forces such that the external attracter is held in place by the magnetic attractive forces therebetween and the external attracter can be placed against the attachment surface to suspend the handbag from the attachment surface.

5. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 1, wherein the the high powered attracter is permanently sealed inside the suspension pocket.

6. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 1, wherein the the high powered attracter is removably sealed inside the suspension pocket, and the suspension pocket can be opened and accessed by a user.

7. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 4, wherein the the high powered attracter is permanently sealed inside the suspension pocket.

8. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 4, wherein the the high powered attracter is removably sealed inside the suspension pocket, and the suspension pocket can be opened and accessed by a user.

9. An off the floor fashion handbag, comprising: a handbag outer material defining an exterior wall of the handbag and having an external surface covering;a handbag inner lining attached in at least one location to the exterior wall;a suspension pocket attached to an inside of the inner lining and having an interior space therein;the suspension pocket configured to hold within the interior space a high powered attracter; andthe high powered attracter comprising a high strength magnet placed within the suspension pocket and configured such that the off the floor fashion handbag is suspended by placing the suspension pocket in proximity to an attachment surface thereby causing the high powered attracter within the suspension pocket to be attracted to the attachment surface, thereby sandwiching the outer material between the high powered attracter and the attachment surface and suspending the off the floor fashion handbag thereby so that the handbag does not rest on a bottom portion of the off the floor fashion handbag, but instead is suspended from the attachment surface.

10. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 9 wherein the attachment surface comprises one of a second magnet and a surface which attracts magnets.

11. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 9, further comprising: an external attracter positioned on the external surface covering and attracted to the high powered attracter by magnetic forces such that the external attracter is held in place by the magnetic attractive forces therebetween and the external attracter can be placed against the attachment surface to suspend the handbag from the attachment surface.

12. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 10, further comprising: an external attracter positioned on the external surface covering and attracted to the high powered attracter by magnetic forces such that the external attracter is held in place by the magnetic attractive forces therebetween and the external attracter can be placed against the attachment surface to suspend the handbag from the attachment surface.

13. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 9, wherein the the high powered attracter is permanently sealed inside the suspension pocket.

14. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 10, wherein the the high powered attracter is removably sealed inside the suspension pocket, and the suspension pocket can be opened and accessed by a user.

15. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 12, wherein the the high powered attracter is permanently sealed inside the suspension pocket.

16. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 12, wherein the the high powered attracter is removably sealed inside the suspension pocket, and the suspension pocket can be opened and accessed by a user.

17. An off the floor fashion handbag, comprising: a handbag outer material defining an exterior wall of the handbag and having an external surface covering;a handbag inner lining attached in at least one location to the exterior wall;a suspension pocket attached to the external surface covering of the outer material, the suspension pocket having an interior space therein;the suspension pocket configured to hold within the interior space a high powered attracter; andthe high powered attracter comprising a high strength magnet placed within the suspension pocket and configured such that the off the floor fashion handbag is suspended by placing the suspension pocket in proximity to an attachment surface thereby causing the high powered attracter within the suspension pocket to be attracted to the attachment surface and suspending the off the floor fashion handbag thereby so that the handbag does not rest on a bottom portion of the off the floor fashion handbag, but instead is suspended from the attachment surface.

18. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 17 wherein the attachment surface comprises one of a second magnet and a surface which attracts magnets.

19. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 18, further comprising: an external attracter positioned on the external surface covering and attracted to the high powered attracter by magnetic forces such that the external attracter is held in place by the magnetic attractive forces therebetween and the external attracter can be placed against the attachment surface to suspend the handbag from the attachment surface.

20. The off the floor fashion handbag of claim 19, wherein the the high powered attracter is permanently sealed inside the suspension pocket.