1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a product container having point-of-sale security inherent therein. After purchase, the point-of-sale security feature is disabled, and the product container may be used by the consumer to store the article or articles which are sold in the product container.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many patents directed to providing articles in a container which is sold to consumers. One such patent is U.S. Pat. No. 6,321,944 issued Nov. 27, 2001 to E. M. Centrangolo.
There are also many patents directed to providing evidence that the contents of a container have been tampered with. Among such patents are the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,191,898 issued Sep. 19, 2000 to R. C. G. Dark;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,902 issued Mar. 2, 1999 to Dieter F. Lay;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,840 issued Sep. 1, 1998 to Jens Mogard;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,918 issued Feb. 7, 1995 to George J. Neveras et al; and
U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,044 issued Oct. 18, 1994 to Donald La Vange.
However, none of these patents provide a point-of-sale security feature.
Accordingly it is a first object of the present invention to provide a point-of-sale security feature to a container having an article therein.
A second object of the invention is to provide an attachment for such container having an article therein, so that such point-of-sale security may be provided.
A third object of the present invention is to provide such an attachment which cannot readily be bypassed or disabled, thereby voiding such point-of-sale security.
The present invention provides a point-of-sale security system for a product. The point-of-sale security system includes a container for containing the product, and a holder assembly, the holder assembly including a closure device for the container. The closure device and the container are provided with cooperative members which are operatively associated with the container and with the closure device. The cooperative members are configured such that, when enabled by a stop member, the container is prevented from being decoupled from the device and when the stop member is disabled, the container can be decoupled from the holder device. The stop member is configured to be selectively prevented from enabling the decoupling of the container and the device.
In a first preferred feature of this invention, the closure device is a cap for the container, the cap being integral with, and projecting outwardly from, the holder assembly, e.g., the hang tag.
In a first subsidiary feature of this first preferred feature of this invention, the cap includes a pair of flexibly-movable parts, the holder assembly, e.g., the hang tag, is integrally associated with the stop member, and the holder member, e.g., the hang tag is configured to be severed, along with its stop member, from the cap and to be discarded. This disables the stop member and enables the cap to be decoupled from the container.
In a second subsidiary feature of this first preferred feature of this invention, the cap includes a pair of slits to enable flexing of the two associated flexibly-movable parts of the cap. When the two associated, flexibly-movable parts of the cap are urged towards one another, the cap can be decoupled from the container.
In an auxiliary feature of this second subsidiary feature of this first preferred feature of this invention, the cap is provided with at least two external locking ramped projections and the container is provided with a like number of cooperating locking apertures. These ramped projections and apertures enable the cap and the container to be selectively coupled and decoupled.
In a fourth subsidiary feature of this first preferred feature of this invention, the stop member is an integral tongue projecting from the holder assembly, e.g., the hang tag, and that tongue is slidably disposed within a longitudinal slot between two opposed integral internally-oriented projections within the interior of the cap.
In a fifth subsidiary feature of this first preferred feature of this invention, the cap comprises two flexibly-movable parts which are held in united orientation by a pair of integrally-molded straps, so that these integrally-molded straps comprise the stop member. When the straps are severed, the parts of the cap may be urged towards one another, so that the cap can be decoupled from the container.
In an auxiliary feature of this fifth subsidiary feature of this first preferred feature of this invention, the cap is provided with at least two external locking ramped projections and the container is provided with a like number of cooperating locking apertures. These ramped projections and apertures enable the cap and the container to be selectively coupled and decoupled.
In a sixth subsidiary feature of the first preferred feature of this invention, the flexibly-movable parts of the cap are held together, and the cap is simultaneously secured to the container, by means of a pin passing through cooperating aligned apertures in the cap and the container, the pin being secured in the aperture. When the pin is structurally-altered to enable its removal from the apertures, the two parts of the cap may be urged towards one another, so that the cap can be decoupled from the container.
In a first auxiliary feature of this sixth subsidiary feature of the first preferred feature of this invention, the two flexibly-movable parts of the cap are also held together by severable, integrally-molded straps.
In a second auxiliary feature of this sixth subsidiary feature of the first preferred feature of this invention, the cap is provided with at least two external locking ramped projections, and the container is provided with a like number of cooperating locking apertures. These ramped projections and apertures enable the cap and the container to be selectively coupled and decoupled.
In a seventh subsidiary feature of this first preferred embodiment of this invention, the cap is secured to the holder assembly, e.g., the hang tag, by mushroom pins and cooperating apertures operatively associated with the holder member, e.g., the hang tag and the cap. When the mushroom pins are structurally-altered to enable removal from the apertures, the two parts of the cap can be urged towards one another, so that the cap can be decoupled from the container.
In a first auxiliary feature of this seventh subsidiary feature of this first preferred embodiment of this invention, the cap is provided with at least two external locking ramped projections and the container is provided with a like number of cooperating locking apertures. These ramped projections and apertures enable the cap and the container to be selectively coupled and decoupled.
In a second auxiliary feature of this seventh subsidiary feature of this first preferred embodiment of this invention, the stop member is an integral tongue projecting from the holder assembly, e.g., the hang tag, and that tongue is slidably disposed within a longitudinal slot between two opposed integral internally-oriented projections within the interior of the cap.
In a second preferred feature of this invention, the holder assembly is preferably a hang tag, and the holder assembly, e.g., the hang tag, is provided with an integral cap which is inset within the lower edge of the holder assembly, e.g, the hang tag.
In a first auxiliary feature of this second preferred feature of this invention, the stop member is an integral tongue depending from the holder assembly, e.g., the hang tag, and is situated within the integral cap. Severing of the holder assembly, e.g., the hang tag and tongue enables separation of the holder assembly, e.g., the hang tag, from the container. Manual removal of the severed tongue enables access to the contents of the container.
Yet another feature is the cap portion having tabs extending axially therefrom, which engage in corresponding slots in the end of the tube, to act as a further obstacle to prevent twisting of the tube in an attempt to separate it from the hang tag.
Further features will be described or will become apparent in the course of the following detailed description.
The present invention provides a combination of a container and a holder assembly, e.g., a hang tag. In one embodiment, the container can only be separated from the holder, e.g., the hang tag by cutting at cut points. This is something which the purchaser can do easily at home, but not so easily in a retail (store) environment. Once the holder, e.g., hang tag, is separated from the container, a part of the holder, e.g., hang tag, can be used as a cap for the container.
In other embodiments, destructible straps, or destructible pins, when cut or structurally-altered, enable the container to be decoupled from the holder assembly, e.g., the hang tag.
The container can be used to hold a variety of single or multiple articles. Among the articles which can be so held are small hardware items, e.g., drill bits, toiletry articles, OTC medications, shampoos, toothpaste, etc. The container preferably is cylindrical.
In the accompanying drawings,
FIG. 28 and
The cap portion 20 includes a primary portion 22 which is integral with the holder assembly 14 (hang tag 16), and a reduced diameter portion 24. Reduced diameter portion 24 is provided with two, diametrically-opposed integral locking ramped projections 26 (only one of which can be seen) along its outer circumference.
The end 28 of the tube 10 is provided with two diametrically-opposed locking openings 30. The locking ramped projections 26 are configured to engage with the locking openings 30 to lock the tube 10 in place against a face 32 of the larger-diameter primary portion 22 of the cap 20.
The cap 20 has two diametrically-opposed, longitudinally-extending slots 34, which can be urged to closer proximity at their open ends to permit the locking ramped projections 26 to mate with the locking openings 30 in order to couple the tube 10 with the cap 20. These slots 34 also permit the cap 20 to be manually squeezed so that the locking ramped projections 26 can be disengaged from the locking openings 30, to decouple the cap 20 from the tube 20.
Such removal of the cap 20 from the tube 10 is prevented by a security element provided by various embodiments of this invention. One embodiment of such security element, as shown in
Once the holder assembly 14 (hang tag 16) is cut away from the cap 20 and is discarded, as shown in
In the absence of the tongue 36, the cap 20 may be manually-squeezed to urge the slots 34 closer together at their open ends to decouple the cap 20 from the tube 10.
After sale, when the strap 150 is cut by the consumer (See
This embodiment also shows the strap 150 (described in
In use, the cap 20 is placed onto the tube 10, and the tongue 30 is inserted into the slot 40 in the cap 20 between the two integral inwardly-oriented projections 38. When the holder assembly 14 (hang tag 16) is fully seated, the pins 210 on one component are pressed through the holes 212 in the other component to complete the assembly. The mushroom head prevents removal of the pins 210 from the holes 212. This must be done by special cutters either at the point-of-sale or later by the consumer. However, once the mushroom heads are severed, the pins 210 may be removed from the holes 212, and the cap 20 can be decoupled from the tube 10.
Assembly of the holder assembly 14 (hang tag 16) is the same as the assembly of the cap 20 and tube 10 of
Decoupling is effected by cutting at cut lines 2846, 2848, and removal of the holder assembly 14 (hang tag 16) from the tube. The separated portion of the holder assembly 14 (hang tag 16) constituting the cap 2820 may be used as a cap for the tube 10 as described with respect to
The main advantages of embodiments of this invention is the point-of-sale security which is provided, and the potential for the consumer subsequently to reuse the container with its cap.
Although the accompanying drawings illustrate only a cylindrical embodiment of the container, it should be readily appreciated that the principle of the invention could be readily employed with a square, oval, rectangular or any other shape which would still permit squeezing of the cap to disengage the ramped projections. Similarly, it should be appreciated that there could be, for example in a rectangular embodiment, a number of such ramped projections along both upper and lower edges, such that squeezing the cap would disengage each of those multiple projections.
From the foregoing description, one skilled in the art can easily ascertain the essential characteristics of this invention, and without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, can make various changes and modifications of the invention to adapt it to various usages and conditions. Consequently, such changes and modifications are properly, equitably, and “intended” to be, within the full range of equivalence of the following claims.
This is a formal application based on and claiming the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application No. 60/311,084, filed Aug. 10, 2001.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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3023925 | Sher | Mar 1962 | A |
4378068 | Bell | Mar 1983 | A |
4445622 | Sideri | May 1984 | A |
4480762 | Thomas | Nov 1984 | A |
4712671 | Salacuse | Dec 1987 | A |
5373953 | Fenton et al. | Dec 1994 | A |
5740911 | Chou | Apr 1998 | A |
5918752 | Meyer | Jul 1999 | A |
5979649 | Rosler | Nov 1999 | A |
5988413 | Nagel | Nov 1999 | A |
6662948 | Velliquette | Dec 2003 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20030029756 A1 | Feb 2003 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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60311084 | Aug 2001 | US |