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(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of calendars, in particular multi-year calendars. The invention also relates to individualized promotional material for use by a person who desires to promote his name or the name of his business along with contact information.
(2) Description of Related Art including information disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,148, “Universal Round Clock Calendar”, issued to Karel Kolar, on Aug. 25, 1981, discloses a universal round calendar which may be employed for various calendar systems. The calendar, according to the invention, consists of two mutually revolving discs carrying indication marks for calendar data. This patent is primarily for use as the face of a wristwatch and does not accommodate multiple years.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,308,678, “Two-Date Reminder”, issued to Joel B. Slobin, on Jan. 5, 1982, discloses a visible reminder of two dates which the user selects by rotatably adjusting at least one pair of concentric discs carrying inner and outer circular date scales which cooperate with corresponding reference marks to designate the selected dates. This patent is primarily for reminding the user of two important dates after being set. However, it does not have a multi-year capability.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,723, “Perpetual Calendar”, issued to Scott A. Cregg, on May 24, 1994, discloses a calendar including a first disk and a second disk. The second disk is connected to and rotatable concentrically relative to the first disk. The first disk includes a window representing the various days of the week. The first disk further includes indicia indicating various months of the year and lead lines which function as pointers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,964,512, “Personal Organization Tool”, issued to A. Daniel Brophy, on Nov. 15, 2005, discloses a personal organizational tool comprising an indicator and an analog display divided into areas representing days of the week to help people organize themselves and remind them of various events or activities.
There is a felt need on the part of business people to have an affordable individualized promotional piece similar to a standard business card that will have some inherent practical value to the recipient of the piece that induces the recipient to keep and to use the practical feature of the piece. The present invention provides a multi-year calendar not much bigger than a standard business card which encourages the recipient to keep and use the invention as a calendar for possibly several years, with the business person's name and contact information pre-printed on the invention. The calendar uses a coded wheel and the edge of the table area to get the correct code which then acts as a key to reveal the day and date for the entire month.
The following reference numerals are used to describe the drawings:
The invention 10 supports a multi-year configuration, with the number of years displayed, limited only by the space on the promotional item 10. In this invention, each individual year will be displayed in a horizontal table element with 12 entries, one table element for each year, starting with JAN on the left and proceeding to DEC on the right, and the year pre-printed to the left of its calendar area (20, 25 or 30).
The preferred embodiment of the invention 10 uses letters for days of the week 55 and numbers for the particular day, and shapes and color with or without shapes for quick visual orientation to calendar elements 60. Thus, all of the 30 day months will be set out with a particular color, for example, green. The month of February, will always be a unique color, different from the 30 days per month color, for example, blue. The remaining 31 day months are usually simply a white background for the black letters, but a contrasting color could also be used here, if desired.
When the month of February has the same number of days for several years, i.e. between leap years, those calendar year table rows (20, 25 or 30) are grouped together. Likewise, when the year has February for a leap year, that year is not grouped with other years, but is simply a single calendar area/table (20 or 30).
The colors used for specially encoded day letters 60 as used on either the rotatable outer wheel 40 or for one of the calendar areas (20, 25 or 30), will always be matched in use, so that they can be used to find the correct day/date.
In an example of use for the preferred embodiment, the rotatable outer wheel 40 is in the color of green, with most of the day letters printed in black, bold print and disposed as S,S,M,T,W,T,F in four repeated sets around the rotatable outer wheel. Each letter S for Sunday is encircled in yellow with the letter S in red. Each T for Thursday is in a purple square with the letter T for Thursday in a darker purple.
The same colors and square/circle configuration is repeated in each year table unit, i.e. the yearly table units are printed with the background color of green, with most of the day letters printed in black, bold print and disposed as S,S,M,T,W,T,F when used. Each letter S for Sunday is encircled in yellow with the letter S in red. Each T for Thursday is in a purple square with the letter T for Thursday in a darker purple. The leap years, 2008 and 2012 are shown with the day number 29 and the FEB with a blue background and black print. The non-leap years, 2009, 2010, 2011 have an orange background for the number 28 and FEB. The 31 day months have white background for the number 31 and the associated month, along with green background for the number 30 for the 30 day months and their associated month.
The fixed inner wheel 45 is featured with a white background for both the outer semi-circles, and a yellow color for the innermost semi-circle. The fixed inner wheel 45 has three concentric semi-circles with the numbered days of the month disposed at the edge of each semi-circle. The outer semi-circle has a white background with black letters for day numbers 1 through 14. The next inside semi-circle has a white background with black letters for day numbers 15 through 28, with the number 28 in red. The innermost semi-circle 45 has the numbers 29, 30 and 31 disposed on the lower left starting at the lower left edge of the inner semi-circle 45, with the numbers 29 and 30 in blue, with the number 31 in black.
In using the invention 10 with this embodiment, let us say we are in the year 2008, and we want the calendar days for the 31 day month of May. We then use the desired year month day table entry 65 for 2008 in the calendar area 30. We find that this day table entry 65 has a purple-boxed letter T. We then turn the rotatable outer wheel 40 to show one of the purple-boxed T letters on the top edge of the instructional area 35, and above the arrowhead for the arrow in the instruction text. With the weekday letter 55 thus aligned, the correct day numbers on the fixed inner wheels 45 are now aligned with the days of the week, and the calendar for the month of May in 2008 is now available to the user.
For purposes of this description, all of the letters and the instructional area 35 is shown with the instruction in the English language, but the invention 10 is not limited to English, and the letters and text can also be printed in any desired alternative language with the appropriate language symbols.
The following is a detailed description of the drawings:
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Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
1426982 | Grunewald | Aug 1922 | A |
1495158 | Burnham | May 1924 | A |
1507345 | Doyle | Sep 1924 | A |
2191757 | Hacker | Feb 1940 | A |
2292697 | Juergens | Aug 1942 | A |
2462598 | Blodget | Feb 1949 | A |
2537693 | Nono | Jan 1951 | A |
2932104 | Corbett | Apr 1960 | A |
4041628 | Sasson | Aug 1977 | A |
4285148 | Kolar | Aug 1981 | A |
4308678 | Slobin | Jan 1982 | A |
4541725 | Baumgartner et al. | Sep 1985 | A |
5124013 | Seddon et al. | Jun 1992 | A |
5313723 | Cregg | May 1994 | A |
6160766 | Chiang | Dec 2000 | A |
6964512 | Brophy | Nov 2005 | B2 |
7363735 | Riddle | Apr 2008 | B2 |
20050120598 | Bury | Jun 2005 | A1 |
20090139121 | Bury | Jun 2009 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20120073167 A1 | Mar 2012 | US |