Patent Application
20130134277
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an improved device for holding drinks through suspension of the device manually, on an edge of a surface (e.g., table, desk, chair, counter, etc.), carrying a beverage container by a single finger while using both hands or within a vehicle, such as an automobile and the like. The term cup as used throughout is intended to encompass any beverage holder, as for example cans, glasses, bottles and cups as normally understood.
2. Background of the Art
Many individuals find it convenient or “necessary” to drink a beverage “on the run.” People may purchase a cup of coffee at a drive-up window of a “fast food” restaurant, and wish to continue driving while drinking the coffee in the confines of his vehicle, or buy their beverage at a coffee shop and rush off to work while carrying briefcases, laptops, newspapers and other items. It is, of course, inconvenient, as well as dangerous, to simply carry the beverage while overloaded, or even while merely rearrangement the distribution of the additional load being carried, especially with hot liquid beverages.
Generally, most cup holders (and especially vehicle cup holders) fit into one of two categories. Either the cup holder comprises a recess within an accessory unit of the vehicle, typically disposed along the vehicle floor or dashboard between the passengers, or a basket supported or hung along a portion of the vehicle. It should be recognized that either of these designs has the common feature of being fixed to a portion of the vehicle so that abrupt stops or turns made by the vehicle are likely to cause spilling and splashing of the liquid. One of the more popular designs, in the latter of the two categories mentioned above, employs the concept of hanging a basket which conforms to a cup or the like adjacent to a vehicle door via an upright arm attached to the basket. This design is well-suited for rural driving in which sudden stops and starts, as well as frequent turns, are not often encountered. In the city, however, where such stopping, starting and frequent turning is not uncommon, such movements by the vehicle can result in the jarring of the basket holder by the door itself, resulting in oscillatory wave-like movement of the liquid within the cup. Since the holder is fixed to the door, when the cup contains any substantial amount of liquid, the above-mentioned stops and/or turns will inevitably cause spilling and splashing of the liquid out of the cup.
Also in all of the foregoing designs, there is a relatively deep well or basket into which the cup is seated. Sometimes, a cup or can gets “hung up” in such a retainer when the user tries to remove it. This in itself can cause spills or can cause the holder to become accidentally dislodged from its mount. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,943,025 and 5,029,793 (Warner) attempts to address that problem by providing a cup holder comprising a base for supporting a cup or the like to an edge of which a cantilever support is rigidly connected and extends upwardly over the base. A semi-flexible elongate strip is connected at one end to the cantilever arm at a point approximately over the center of the base. The semi-flexible elongate strip includes a hook at the other end for suspending the cup holder from a vehicle minor or the like. It can be demonstrated that forces applied above the center of gravity of the cup will readily rotate the cup, even in its holder, and allow fluid contents to spill from the cup.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,798 (Chun) describes a beverage container holder (2000) that can be attached to horizontal or vertical members, that can be compacted and that can accept cylindrical and frustoconical beverage containers and mugs. Preferably a strap (130) is wrapped in the middle of the beverage container holder (2000) when it is rolled up.
It is desirable to provide a more stable and generally useable cup holder that provides a user temporary stability in setting aside the beverage container while performing additional tasks.
The present invention comprises a cup-holding device including a side-of-the-cup supporting element for supporting a cup (the term “cup” is being used as a generic term for any liquid beverage container with an available opening on a top portion of the container through which a drinker may obtain liquid through the opening. The opening may be completely open of be temporarily or partially covered for later access by the drinker.). The side-of-the-cup supporting element, herein referred to as the “side-support element,” must have contact with the side(s) of the beverage container on at least three points distributed around the side(s) of the beverage container with the at least three points distributed over at least 200° (geometric degrees) of the circumference of the exterior surface of the beverage container. The contact points may be continuous (e.g., a complete ring or sleeve in contact with a continuous line of the entire or near entire circumference of the beverage container exterior surface), or it may be discontinuous with multiple (in this case, at least three) points of contact, or may be exactly three points of contact. The points of contact are provided by a side-contact element that is an element that bridges at least the 200° of circumference and has a vertical support element that provides direct support to the side contact element at the at least three points of contact. The three points of contact also must be at a height of the beverage container that is at least 25% of the height of the container, and preferably at least 40 or 50% of the height of the container to provide vertical rotational stability to the system described herein, and more preferably the at least three points of contact extend above at least 60% or 75% along the upward length (height) of the beverage container. The side support elements may be single use or sturdy enough to be reusable and decorative and personalized.
The design of this support system enables a geometric suspension of a cup in the system which creates a constantly leveling state of being for the cup and whatever liquid is in the cup. That is, as centripetal forces act on the supported cup (e.g., in a moving vehicle or on a cart), those forces transmitted through the contact points allow the cup to rotate about those contact points and moderate the tilt of the cup with the tilt of the liquid in the cup. With the multi-string (e.g., at least three strings and at least three attachment points on the cup above the center of gravity of the cup) attachment system, as the centripetal forces push the cup to a relatively “left direction,” the length of the string on the relatively “right direction” of the cup is effectively tightened and the strings on the effectively “left direction” side of the cup are subject to lessened tension. This allows for gravity to pull the relatively “left direction” side of the cup downward, leveling the cup and moderating any likelihood of spillage of the liquid in the cup.
For purposes of description herein, the terms “upper,” “lower,” “right,” “left,” “rear,” “front,” “vertical,” “horizontal” and derivatives thereof shall relate to the invention as oriented with respect to an axis passing from the bottom of the beverage container through the top of the beverage container in a symmetrical axis line through a center point of symmetry in the beverage container (e.g., the center of a round bottom and the center of a round top, which are most common). However, it is to be understood that the invention may assume various alternative orientations and step sequences, except where expressly specified to the contrary in the present description. It is also to be understood that the specific devices and procedures illustrated in the attached drawings, and described in the following specification, are only exemplary embodiments of the generic inventive concepts defined in the appended claims. Hence, specific dimensions, and other physical characteristics relating to the embodiments disclosed herein are not to be considered as limiting on the claims, unless the claims by their language expressly state otherwise.
There are basically three subspecies within the generic concept of the present invention. All three subspecies fall within the generic description of the Summary of the Invention and the scope of the broadest claims in this application, as filed. The first subspecies is referred to herein as the “parachute” form, in which at least three support elements extend upwardly from the side-support element, somewhere about or connected to the at least three points of contact, providing at least three points of support extending upwardly. Preferably three support elements are attached to each other above the top of the beverage container to form a single upper highest support point for this format. At the single support point may be a hook, cantilever, suction cup, adhesive patch, or any other mechanical, magnetic or chemical (e.g., adhesive) attachment component.
A second subspecies format for practicing the present technology is the “snake” format, in which a substantive (e.g., self-supporting) coil element wraps around the beverage container and there is an upwardly extending at least single and possibly multiple (again substantive) at least single upper highest support element from which the “snake” element is supported and in turn the beverage container is supported, balancing in cantilever manner.
A third subspecies is more closely connected to the first subspecies and is referred to herein as the “reverse cone” formation. Most beverage containers are inverted frusto-conical shapes (the pointy-end of the cone is cut off). To prevent a sleeve or wrap from sticking to the sloped conical shape because of too perfect a fit, the side-support element is a non-inverted frusto-conical shape or cylindrical shape (e.g., or inverted frusto-conical shape having a more cylindrical slant to the sides (more acute slope or even a completely reversed slope that is sloped in the opposite direction relative to vertical than the slope of the cup) than the slope of the sides in the beverage container, thereby reducing the total area of contact between the side-support element and the sides of the beverage container, and causing the sleeve to grip the cup along a single line around the circumference and have another line of the width of the sleeve extend away from the cup, much in the mode of a skirt.
The design of this generic support system enables a geometric suspension of a cup in the system which creates a constantly leveling state of being for the cup and whatever liquid is in the cup. That is, as centripetal and centrifugal forces act on the supported cup (e.g., in a moving vehicle or on a cart or while manually supported) as the supported cup is turned or its direction of movement changed, those forces transmitted through the contact points allow the cup to rotate about those contact points and moderate the tilt of the cup with the tilt of the liquid in the cup. With the multi-string (e.g., at least three strings and at least three attachment points on the cup above the center of gravity of the cup) attachment system, as the centripetal and centrifugal forces push the cup to a relative “first direction,” the length of the string on the relatively opposed “second direction” of the cup is effectively tightened and the strings on the effectively “first direction” side of the cup are subject to lessened tension. This allows for gravity to pull the relatively “first direction” side of the cup downward, leveling the cup and moderating any likelihood of spillage of the liquid in the cup.
These and other aspects of the disclosed technology can be viewed in the Figures, which are described in detail.
In
AS can be seen from
The side support element or cuff is attached to elongated elements 20a 20b and 20c at various locations by buttons, connectors, adhesive patches, adhesive overlay, staples, punch attachment, rivets, or the like 14a 14b and 14c. The elongated elements 20a 20b and 20c may be filament, string, wire, cords, cables, strips or the like that are attached to a surface engaging element 22. The elongated elements 20a 20b and 20c may be elastic or non-elastic. The elongated elements 20a 20b and 20c may be provided with the cuff 10 already in an extended position, or may be provided lightly and detachably secured in a compact form, such as 16 where the elongated element 20a is serpentine and adhered to the side of the cuff 10 (e.g., by pressure sensitive adhesive, a pressure-sensitive adhesive overlay, a light wax coating, a tacky coating, or thin polymeric layer) and so does not hang loosely from the cuff before associated with a cup.
When the elongate element 20a is pulled, it detaches from the cup and elongates. The surface engaging element 22 is shown as a three-pronged (24a 24b 24c) with three spaces 26a 26b 26c that may engage a surface (not shown) One or more of the prongs may engage a soft surface (not shown) or hook onto an edge, groove, ridge or hole in the surface (non shown, because of its simplicity). Alternative structures for the elongate elements 20a 20b 20c and an engaging element 22 may have a point of contact 28 more central or centered to the engaging element than at the end as illustrated.
When the cup-holding device is suspended from the surface with a cup therein, spilling and splashing from the filled cup due to erratic movements and turns commonly associated with even a moving vehicle are alleviated.
The materials used in the various elements are essentially a matter of specific functions and durability desired in the article. The cups may be any commercial cup. The side support may be metal, metallic, polymeric, cellulosic (e.g., paper, cardboard), composite, mixed materials and the like. The extended elements may be metal or polymer wire, filament, cord, string, rigid (especially with hinges on them to allow bending), straps, flexible and the like.
The surface securing elements may similarly be made of metal, polymer, ceramic, composite, cellulosic material and the like, and may operate to provide temporary securement to the surface by any of the various mechanisms described herein and apparent alternatives to one skilled in the art.
In the foregoing description, it will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that modifications may be made to the invention without departing from the concepts disclosed herein. Such modifications are to be considered as included in the following claims unless the claims by their language expressly state otherwise.
