Patent Application
20120297628
The present invention relates to kitchen utensils and more particularly to cutlery having a shape for reducing contact with unsanitary surfaces.
Kitchen utensils are an essential part of daily life, and are utilized by consumers in home and restaurant settings. In the past 50 years, the basic design of cutlery/silverware (i.e. forks, knives and spoons and other kitchen utensils) have changed very little owing to the fact that consumers are comfortable with the traditional shape of cutlery. To this end, attempts to introduce radically new designs in the marketplace have been met with limited success. Conventional kitchen utensils typically include an elongated handle having a manipulation instrument (such as tines or a bowl, for example) secured to one end for making contact with food and/or the mouth of a user. This traditional design allows the bottom portion of the manipulation instrument to make direct contact with a tabletop or other surface when the utensil is not in use.
In the past, there have been many systems and methods for properly cleaning kitchen utensils to ensure they are sanitary for successive use. However, it is common for these sanitized utensils to be placed on a tabletop that has not been properly cleaned, thus contaminating the manipulation instrument and fostering the spread of illness and disease.
It is an object of the invention to provide a kitchen utensil having an integrated stand for maintaining a sanitary endpoint.
Accordingly, there is provided a kitchen utensil having a handle and an endpoint for manipulating food. The handle includes a downward facing protrusion/stand configured to prevent the endpoint from resting on a foreign surface while not in use.
Presently preferred embodiments are shown in the drawings. It should be appreciated, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown.
a is cutout view of an integrated stand according to another embodiment of the invention.
While the specification concludes with claims defining the features of the invention that are regarded as novel, it is believed that the invention will be better understood from a consideration of the description in conjunction with the drawings. As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which can be embodied in various forms. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the inventive arrangements in virtually any appropriately detailed structure. Further, the terms and phrases used herein are not intended to be limiting but rather to provide an understandable description of the invention.
For purposes of this description, the terms “upper,” “bottom,” “right,” “left,” “front,” “vertical,” “horizontal,” and derivatives thereof shall relate to the invention as oriented in
The endpoint 11 acts as an instrument for manipulating food (i.e. manipulation instrument), and therefore is designed to make direct contact with food products and the mouth of a user. In one embodiment, the endpoint 11 of the fork 10 includes a generally concave shape having a plurality of tines l la merging to form a solid transition shelf 1 lb that is integrally formed with the neck 12 and handle 13.
The neck 12 acts to separate the endpoint 11 from the handle 13. In instances where the endpoint and the handle are constructed from separate materials, the neck acts to secure these elements together through known manufacturing processes.
The handle 13 can include a generally rectangular member having a gentle arch for allowing the handle end 13d to rest on a surface 15 while orienting the tines 11a at an approximate 45 degree angle when not in use. To this end, the overall shape of the handle is slightly convex in relation to the endpoint 11.
In one embodiment illustrated by
In either instance, the stand 14 can act as an integrated utensil stand for preventing the sanitized endpoint 11 from making contact with a potentially contaminated surface 15. Moreover, by positioning the stand 14 adjacent to the neck 12 of the handle 13, the stand does not affect the traditional and familiar use/handling of the utensil. Although described above as utilizing specific shapes and materials, one of skill in the art will recognize that the stand 14 can include virtually any shape and can be made from any material. For example, in one embodiment, the stand 14 can be constructed from the same material as the utensil, whereas in another embodiment the stand 14 can be constructed from a different material than the utensil.
The integrated protrusion/stand 14 can be utilized with any number of different utensils, such as the spoon 30 that is illustrated in
Although described above as for use on particular eating utensils, one of skill in the art will recognize that the inventive concepts disclosed herein can be equally applied to eating utensils of all types such as knives and serving instruments, for example, without deviating from the scope and spirit of the inventive concepts disclosed herein.
As to a further description of the manner and use of the present invention, the same should be apparent from the above description. Accordingly, no further discussion relating to the manner of usage and operation will be provided.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all means or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended to include any structure, material, or act for performing the function in combination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
