Patent Application
20250151866
The disclosure relates to book carrying cases and more particularly pertains to a new book carrying case for carrying a book and protecting the book from external forces.
Various book carrying cases are disclosed by the prior art. However, the prior art fails to describe such a carrying case which uses rigid materials such as a rigid cardboard or a wood boar to enclose the book. Rigid materials may be more beneficial for protecting an enclosed book, because deformations are not made in the rigid material when an external force is applied which can cause deformations to the contained book. Some of the book carrying cases of the prior art may disclose cases with front and back covers comprising rigid materials but do not disclose cases with perimeter walls attached to the front and back covers that also comprise rigid materials. Resistance to deformation along a perimeter of a book may be more desirable in order to avoid damage to the flexible and easily torn pages of the book.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a back case member with a bottom wall and a perimeter wall. The perimeter wall is coupled to and extends away from the bottom wall. The perimeter wall and the bottom wall define a book-receiving cavity with a rectangular shape that has a size for accommodating a book. The perimeter wall and the bottom wall comprise a back member rigid material such that the back case member is configured to protect the book from impacts experienced by the back case member when the back case member contains the book. A front case member is pivotally coupled to the back case member and is movable between an open position and a closed position with respect to the book-receiving cavity.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
The perimeter wall 16 and the bottom wall 14 comprise a back member rigid material such that the back case member 12 is configured to protect the book 74 from impacts experienced by the back case member 12 when the back case member 12 contains the book 74. The perimeter wall 16 and the bottom wall 14 may comprise, for example, a rigid cardboard material, a wood board material, or any suitable material for rigidly withstanding impacts. The covering 22 encloses the bottom wall 14 and the perimeter wall 16 and abuts the bottom wall 14 and the perimeter wall 16. The covering 22 comprises a back member fabric material, which may include woven fibers, knitted fibers, leather, felt, foam sheeting, or the like.
A front case member 24 is pivotally coupled to the back case member 12 and is movable between an open position 26 and a closed position 28 with respect to the book-receiving cavity 20. The front case member 24 comprises a base wall 30, a peripheral wall 32, and a casing 38. The peripheral wall 32 is coupled to and extends away from the base wall 30. The peripheral wall 32 and the base wall 30 comprise a front member rigid material such that the front case member 24 is configured to protect the book 74 from impacts experienced by the front case member 24 when the front case member 24 covers the book 74. The base wall 30 and the peripheral wall 32 may comprise, for example, a rigid cardboard material, a wood board material, or any suitable material for rigidly withstanding impacts. The casing 38 encloses the base wall 30 and the peripheral wall 32 and abuts the base wall 30 and the peripheral wall 32. The casing 38 comprises a front member fabric material, which may include woven fibers, knitted fibers, leather, felt, foam sheeting, or the like. The front member fabric material may be the same as the back member fabric material, and the casing 38 of the front case member 24 may be integrally formed with the covering 22 of the back case member 12.
A hinge 40 is coupled to the back case member 12 and the front case member 24. The hinge 40 is positioned adjacent to a rim 18 of the perimeter wall 16 of the back case member 12 and adjacent to a rim 34 of the peripheral wall 32 of the front case member 24. The hinge 40 extends along each of the rim 18 of the perimeter wall 16 and the rim 34 of the peripheral wall 32. The hinge 40 comprises a living hinge which is integrally formed with the covering 22 of the back case member 12 and the casing 38 of the front case member 24. The hinge 40 may comprise any other suitable type of hinge in other embodiments. The back case member 12 and the front case member 24 are elongated in a direction parallel to the hinge 40.
A cushion 42 is coupled to the front case member 24 and is surrounded by the peripheral wall 32 of the front case member 24. The cushion 42 comprises a resiliently compressible material to buffer the book 74. The resiliently compressible material comprises a polymer foam but may comprise any suitable buffering material. A closure 44 is coupled to the perimeter wall 16 of the back case member 12 and the peripheral wall 32 of the front case member 24. The closure 44 is operable to secure the front case member 24 in the closed position 28. The closure 44 comprises a zipper but may comprise a hook-and-loop fastener, a snap button, a magnetic fastener, or the like. A handle 46 is coupled to an exterior of the back case member 12 adjacent to the hinge 40. The handle 46 may be made of another fabric material and may be integrally formed with one or both of the covering 22 of the back case member 12 and the casing 38 of the front case member 24.
A pen pocket 48 is coupled to the cushion 42 and comprises an elongated flap 50. The elongated flap 50 defines a pen-receiving space 50 between the elongated flap 50 and the cushion 42 and defines an opening 52 to the pen-receiving space 50 between an edge 56 of the flap and the cushion 42. The pen-receiving space 50 has a size and shape such that the pen pocket 48 is configured for holding a writing instrument 76 such as a pen, a pencil, a marker, or the like. The pen pocket 48 is oriented parallel to the hinge 40. In embodiments without the cushion 42, the pen pocket 48 may be mounted instead to another interior surface of the front case member 24.
A paper goods pocket 58 is coupled to the cushion 42 and comprises a panel 60. The panel 60 defines a paper goods-receiving space 62 between the panel 60 and the cushion 42. The panel 60 has a pair of lateral edges 64 and a bottom edge 66 which are coupled to the cushion 42 and extend along an inner side 36 of the peripheral wall 32 of the front case member 24. A top edge 68 of the panel 60 defines an aperture 70 to the paper goods-receiving space 62 which faces way from the hinge 40. The paper goods pocket 58 comprises an elastic band 72 embedded in the panel 60 adjacent to the top edge 68 which is biased to draw the top edge 68 toward the cushion 42, closing the aperture 70. The paper goods pocket 58 is configured to hold paper goods 78 such as stickers, notepads, bookmarks, or the like. Other items with similarly thin profiles to the paper goods 78 mentioned may also be particularly suited for storage in the paper goods pocket 58.
In use, the book 74 is stored in the book-receiving cavity 20 and protected from external forces by the bottom wall 14 and the perimeter wall 16 of the back case member 12 and base wall 30 and the peripheral wall 32 of the front case member 24. The covering 22 of the back case member 12 and the casing 38 of the front member may include ornamentation such as colors, printed patterns or images, or the like for aesthetic appeal. The writing implement may be stored in the pen pocket 48, and the paper goods 78 may be stored in the paper goods pocket 58.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
