The present invention relates generally to housewares and more particularly to a device that holds a drink, shades the drink, and holds a smart phone simultaneously.
Nature has called people to the water for eons. Water means life to people. Early settlements of people had locations near water, whether freshwater or saltwater. From settlements people sought their food nearby often grown with water, that drank water, or that swam in water. People though faced and still have a profound disadvantage with water: limited swimming ability.
But people still enjoy being around water regardless of swimming. People socialize around pools, swimming holes, beaches, lakesides, and the like across the country. Often socializing includes consuming beverages of all kinds. Some people consume a beverage at once, while others sip their beverage little by little. Sipped beverages often have an open cup, open glass, or an open bottle held by a person. But the person may tire of holding it or get invited to swim. The person then places the cup, glass, or bottle on a surface. On a surface, the beverage in its container may tip over, have bugs fly into it, or water splash in, among other hazards. A surface includes a dock with its flat deck adjacent to a water feature, such as an ocean, river, lake, or stream.
These days, people socialize and keep their smart phones on their person or nearby. Newer smart phones claim water resistance while older ones have no hope if immersed in a swimming pool, a lake, an ocean, or other water body. With replacement costs of smartphones trending higher and higher, protecting a smartphone when near water makes prudent sense. Smartphones have their temperature resistance however, avoiding water entering the smartphone prolongs its useful life. These days, a person does not want their smartphone to become a brick from mere drops of water.
For protecting drinks, people have put beverage containers, such as cups, on tables, on a pool deck, on a dock, in cup holders, on a lounge chair, on a boat seat, and the like. These locations receive the cup but generally leave the top of the cup exposed to the atmosphere and to sunlight. Cup holders and boat seats impart the risks of motion to a cup. Tables, pool decks, and docks leave a cup at risk for being tapped or kicked by an errant foot of a person. If a passing shower comes to a pool, a beach, or a lake, a cup or other beverage container resting near the water body may have rain enter the beverage. When the shower passes, the cup remains exposed to the sun and to insects buzzing nearby. Those pesky wasps have a keen hankering for carbonated sodas.
For protecting smartphones, people rely upon their construction, liners adhered to screens, select cases, password codes, and the like. These protective measures serve as a last line of defense because they install upon or around a smartphone itself. A hazard, such as water, snow, spilled beverage, hand of a thief, and the like may still contact a smartphone. Many times, the flat, elongated form of a smartphone prompts a person to lay it down on a surface. Such positioning exposes the glass to sunlight and potential damage from insects or other projectiles passing by. A smartphone placed down may also splash into a puddle or other liquid upon a surface.
The Shade Holder overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages and drawbacks of the prior art. As such, the general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide new and improved Shade Holder which has all the advantages of the prior art mentioned heretofore and many novel features that result in Shade Holder which are not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by the prior art, either alone or in any combination thereof.
The present invention of the Shade Holder has a base, a column upon the base offset from the center of the base, and a shade connecting to the column spaced above the base. The shade its own width greater than the base for casting the base into a shadow. The column has a compartment within that receives a smartphone and a door upon the compartment that covers it. The column connects to the base upon a bench having drain holes. The base also has a plate with drain holes spaced around its perimeter and the plate spaced above the bottom of the invention when assembled. The base, the column, and the shade connect in only one way. The present invention receives smartphones that do not fold and of width and height less than that of the door.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood and that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. Other attributes of the invention include shade having a socket connection to the column, shade having a flattened dome shape that sheds water, ventilation apertures in the column above the door, tabs upon the base that support a smartphone placed outside the door, and the shade and the base having spaced apart centers. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter, and which will form the subject matter of the claims attached.
Numerous objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description of the presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiment of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Before explaining the current embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
One object of the present invention is to provide a shade holder that stands by itself while preventing excessive sunlight and excessive water from entering a cup placed within it.
Another object is to provide such a shade holder that stores a smart phone upright.
Another object is to provide such a shade holder that drains any water splashed upon it.
Another object is to provide such a shade holder that ventilates its compartment storing a smart phone.
Another object is to provide such a shade holder that partially conceals a smart phone in a decorative manner.
Another object is to provide such a shade holder that receives labelling.
Another object is to provide such a shade holder that may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed to the consuming public.
These together with other objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty that characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there is illustrated a preferred embodiment of the invention.
In referring to the drawings,
The same reference numerals refer to the same parts throughout the various figures.
The present invention overcomes the prior art limitations by providing a shade holder for use near a pool, beach, lake, river or other water body, on docks of all kinds, and on watercraft.
The column has an upright orientation generally perpendicular to the base 2. The column 10 has an offset position, spaced outwardly from the plate 3, and tangential to the base 2. The column has a generally rectangular form in this view with two narrow lateral ends mutually spaced apart and two longitudinal sides mutually parallel and spaced apart and perpendicular to the lateral ends. Proximate the lateral ends, each longitudinal side has two locks 12. The lower lock in the figure secures the column to the base. Between the two locks and the two longitudinal sides and in the direction of the base, the column has a door 11 in hinged connection to it. The door has at least one hinge for a hinged connection to the column, though later
The column shows its second lock 12 generally away from the base 2. Above the second lock, the invention has a shade 20, shown round, connecting to the column. Preferably, the shade has a mechanical connection to the column so that a person may disassemble the invention after its usage and then for storage. The shade has a generally round form with a diameter greater than the diameter of the base. The shade extends above, over, and outward from the base as shown while the shade has its own diameter greater than the diameter of the rounded portion of the base. The shade also has a somewhat convex surface with a flat, centered head 22, where the shade truncates the convex surface as shown. The head 22 receives a label, a sticker, a decal, screen print, laser etching, or another decoration for the invention. The head has a diameter at least one third of the diameter of the shade. In one embodiment, the head has a diameter of six inches. The head Opposite the head and around the shade, the shade has a rim 23 generally perpendicular to the head and parallel to the column. Alternatively, the shade is called a lid.
Turning the assembled in invention,
Turning the assembled invention again, that is, over,
The column 10 has its rectangular form as shown with its lateral ends more precisely called a footer 13 proximate the bench 5 and an opposite header 14 proximate the shade 20. Into the plane of the figure from the footer 13 and the header 14, the column has its wall 15 that forms the back of the compartment that receives a smartphone, not shown. The compartment forms within the footer, the header, and the wall. The footer has its counterpart slot that receives the lower tab of the door, and the header has a centered vent slot. The column, the header, and the footer have a recess that receives the door, when closed. The door 11 has its flat planar form here with its inner edge 30 engaging with an upper pin 31 proximate the shade and a lower pin 32 proximate the base and forming two hinges shown. The inner edge has a hollow tubular form that receives the upper pin 31 and the lower pin 32 snugly. In an alternate embodiment, the door has an outward tab for a person to grasp and the lower tab that closes the bottom of the compartment.
And in this angle of view, the shade 20 has its partial convex form with the hill 21 extending upward and inward from the rim to the head 22.
And the opening of the header and the column of
From the aforementioned description, a shade holder has been described. The shade holder device is uniquely capable of shading a base with a drink upon it and holding a smart phone placed within the invention and with the invention placed upon a supporting surface. In time, a user of the invention should move it. To do so, the user recalls that the column releasably connected to the bench and the column. The user then press the portions of the tabs in the openings of the wall so that the bench falls, and the column drops from the shade under gravity. The shade holder and its various components may be manufactured from many materials, including but not limited to, vinyl, polymers, such as nylon, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, high density polyethylene, polypropylene, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, their alloys, foils, and composites.
Various aspects of the illustrative embodiments have been described using terms commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced with only some of the described aspects. For purposes of explanation, specific numbers, materials and configurations have been set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the illustrative embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without the specific details. In other instances, well known features are omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the illustrative embodiments.
Various operations have been described as multiple discrete operations, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the present invention, however, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations need not be performed in the order of presentation.
Moreover, in the specification and the following claims, the terms “first,” “second,” “third” and the like—when they appear—are used merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.
The above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. For example, the above-described examples (or one or more aspects thereof) may be used in combination with each other. Other embodiments can be used, such to as by one of ordinary skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. The Abstract is provided to allow the reader to ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. Also, in the above Detailed Description, various features may be grouped together to streamline the disclosure. This should not be interpreted as intending that an unclaimed disclosed feature is essential to any claim. Rather, inventive subject matter may lie in less than all features of a particular disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment. The scope of the invention should be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. Therefore, the claims include such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and the scope of the present invention.
This non-provisional application claims priority to the pending provisional application serial number 63/425,613 filed on Nov. 15, 2022 and all applications are owned by the same inventor.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63425613 | Nov 2022 | US |