Patent Application
20110204132
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to mailing envelops. More particularly, this invention relates to mailing envelopes which are reusable. This invention further relates to mailing envelopes which include a security feature that indicates when the envelope has been tampered with before receipt by the intended recipient.
2. Description of the Background Art
Presently, there exist many types of mailing envelopes. The most conventional type of mailing envelope comprises a pouch in which a letter or other type of correspondence is inserted into, whereupon the flap of the envelope is adhesively sealed to securely retain the correspondence therein. The addressor and addressee information is typically type-written or handwritten onto the outside of the envelope allowing the envelope to be properly addressed for delivery via the postal service. Unfortunately, conventional envelopes of this nature are not reusable and therefore unnecessarily result in considerable depletion of natural resources such as paper.
Another common type of mailing envelope comprises an “inter-office” delivery pouch having ruled lines on the outside thereof indicating inter-office mailing information such as “date”, “deliver to”, “delivery by” and “department”. During use, the letter or other correspondence to be delivered is inserted into the pouch. The flap is temporarily closed by means of a tethered string permanently connected to the flap which is simply wound around a button on the body of the pouch. The delivery information is then completed on one of the ruled lines. Upon delivery via the company's internal delivery process to the recipient, the recipient simply unwinds the tether from the button allowing the pouch's flap to be opened and its contents removed.
Beneficially, the interoffice pouch may then be reused by the recipient by simply crossing-out the line of information and completing the delivery information on the next empty line on the front of the pouch. With twenty-five to thirty ruled lines preprinted on the front of the interoffice delivery pouch, it should be appreciated that the pouch may be beneficially reused twenty-five to thirty times before all of the blank lines of delivery information have been used and only then need the interoffice delivery pouch be discarded. Unfortunately, interoffice delivery pouches of this nature are of being sent through the postal services since there is no means for including the full addresses of the addressor or addressee.
Unfortunately, the use of the tether that simply wraps around the button for closure allows someone other than the intended recipient to open the envelope and inspect its contents before the intended recipient. To preclude such tampering, oftentimes, an adhesive “confidential” sticker is placed over the tether to adhere to the pouch such that the pouch's flap cannot be opened by unwinding the tether from the button without tearing of the adhesive “confidential” sticker.
Many improvements have been made to the conventional envelopes described above. Most improvements have involved streamlining the manufacturing of the envelope such that the envelope may be manufactured in a continuous process. However, other improvements have included enhancements to the envelopes to allow them to be reused both for inter-office delivery and for delivery via postal services. Representative U.S. patents, the disclosures of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein, to improve envelopes include the following:
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an improvement which overcomes the aforementioned inadequacies of the prior art devices and provides an improvement which is a significant contribution to the advancement of the mailing envelope art.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved envelope that may be repeatedly reused over and over again.
Another object of this invention is to provide a reusable envelope that may be addressed with the addressor's and/or addressee's mailing information by using the addressor's or addressee's business card inserted within windowed pouches.
Another object of this invention is to provide a reusable envelope that includes a security feature which indicates when the envelope has been previously opened before receipt by the intended recipient thereof.
Another object of this invention is to provide a reusable envelope that, in combination, allows addressing through the use of the addressor's and addressee's conventional business cards with a security feature to indicate if the envelope has been previously tampered with before receipt by the intended recipient.
The foregoing has outlined some of the pertinent objects of the invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the intended invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
For the purpose of summarizing this invention, this invention comprises a tamper-evident reusable mailing envelope comprising an outer envelope with a sealing flap and an inner slide pouch in which is positioned a letter or other correspondence to be mailed. The slide-pouch comprises an addressor pocket and an addressee pocket into which the address of the addressor and the address of the addressee, such as in the form of their respective business cards or preprinted address cards, may be inserted so as to properly address the envelope from the addressor to the addressee. Upon receipt by the addressee, the addressee may respond by simply repositioning the business cards from the respective address pockets such that the original addressee's business card is now positioned in the addressor pocket and the original addressor's business card is positioned into the addressee pocket. It should be appreciated that the use of the slide-pocket within the mailing envelope allows the entire assembly to reused over and over again without needlessly wasting paper or other natural resources.
The tamper-evident security feature comprises one or more aligned openings in the envelope in the upper right hand corner at which position postage stamps would normally be applied. Preferably, two or more parallel-aligned, bar-shaped openings are provided having a stacked height approximately equal to the conventional height of a postage stamp and a length at least as wide as a conventional postage stamp. When a conventional postage stamp is adhesively applied to the envelope over the openings, the adhesive stamp adheres to a middle bar-segment between the two bar-openings and adheres to the slide-pouch positioned therein via the parallel bar-openings. Consequently, it should be appreciated that the adhesive stamp securely fastens the slide-pouch to the envelope and precludes removal thereof unless the stamp is torn off the middle bar segment. Of course, if the stamp is already torn upon receipt by the intended addressee, the addressee knows that the envelope has been previously opened and the slide-pouch has been removed, thereby indicating previous tampering of the envelope.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the more pertinent and important features of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood so that the present contribution to the art can be more fully appreciated. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and the specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:
Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings.
Referring to
The envelope 10 of the invention further comprises at least one, preferably two substantially parallel bar-shaped openings 30A and 30B in the upper right hand corner of the envelope 10 which is the conventional area of placement of postage stamps. The two bar openings 30A and 30B define a mid-bar 30MB therebetween. Upon placement of a postage stamp, shown in phantom at 30S, over the bar-openings 30A and 30B, the postage stamp 30S adheres to the mid-bar 30MB and, through the bar openings 30 A and 30B, also to the surface of slide-pouch 16 positioned within the envelope 10. In this regard, the height of the bar-openings 30A and 30B are preferably approximately the height of a conventional adhesive postage stamp and the width of the bar openings 30A and 30B are preferably at least as wide as a conventional postage stamp and, more preferably, three or four postage stamps. Once the postage stamp 30S is applied as described, the slide-pouch 16 is securely retained within the envelope 10 and cannot be removed to gain access to the letter or other correspondence therein. However, the postage stamp may be easily torn along the edges of the mid-bar segment 30B to release the same, whereupon the slide-pouch 16 may then be removed from the envelope. Of course, it is quickly evident that the envelope 10 had been tampered with before receipt by the intended addressee if the postage stamp 30S is already torn upon receipt of the envelope 10 by the intended addressee. As noted above, the addressor/addressee pockets 18 and 20 are preferably transparent to allow the information on the respective business cards 22 and 24 to be viewed therethrough. In an alternative embodiment as shown in
As shown in
A still further embodiment of the invention that eliminates the need for the slide-pouch 16 is disclosed in
The aforementioned embodiments of
The slide-pouch 16 may correspondingly be configured to comprise a portrait, landscape or square configuration to appropriately fit into the similarly configured envelope 10. The slide-pouch 16 may comprise a side opening such as that shown in
In each of the embodiments, the use of the addressor/addressee pockets 18 and 20 facilitate addressing of the envelope 10 through the use of the addressor's or addressee's respective business cards 22 and 24 and for the addressee to respond to the addressor by simply reversing the cards 22 and 24 in their respective pockets 18 and 20 and reusing the same envelope 10 for such a response. It is noted that in the event the addressor does not have the addressee's business card, the addressor may simply write or type the addressor's address on an appropriately-sized card and insert it into the addressee envelope 20. Furthermore, as shown in
As noted above, the postage stamp 30S functions to provide a secure enclosure that cannot be opened until the postage stamp 30S is torn along the edges of the mid-bar segment 30MB. Typically, such tearing may be conveniently performed by a fingernail or the tip of a pin. However, as shown in
As shown in
As noted above, in lieu of business cards, the address information may be provided on preprinted or handwritten portions of paper and then inserted into the addressor/addressee pockets 18 and 20. As shown in
The present disclosure includes that contained in the appended claims, as well as that of the foregoing description. Although this invention has been described in its preferred form with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure of the preferred form has been made only by way of example and that numerous changes in the details of construction and the combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
Now that the invention has been described,
