Supports – Brackets – Specially mounted or attached
Reexamination Certificate
2003-04-09
2004-11-02
King, Anita (Department: 3632)
Supports
Brackets
Specially mounted or attached
C211S057100, C211S059100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06811128
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to the display of product for retail sales and, more particularly, to a product display bracket for holding blister pack product packages in a sales display in a manner that the product cannot be pulled off of the product display bracket in multiples.
In retail stores, product is often presented for sale on boards from which product display brackets are mounted to hold groups of product in a linear manner extending outwardly from the board for easy access by the consumer/purchaser. These product display brackets are typically formed from wire and include a mounting member that engages the board for support of the product placed upon the wire product display bracket. The board is typically formed in one of several different configurations, including peg board in which holes are formed in the board for engagement by a wire mounting member; a slat wall formed with vertically spaced horizontal grooves for engagement with a specially shaped mounting member; and a wire grip in which vertically spaced horizontal wires are supported to be snapped into a formed mounting member.
Typically, these product support brackets are formed with a hook or loop at the end thereof to both hold the product on the support member and to protect the consumer for impacting the end of the support member. A plurality of product packages, often plastic-formed “blister pack” packages, having an opening at a top portion thereof, is slid onto the support member for display. When a customer desires to purchase one of the displayed products, the front package is grasped and removed off the end of the support member. Since the support member is horizontally oriented, the remaining product packages remain in their original position until manually brought forward to the end of the support member.
The product display support brackets come in many different configurations and formations. One supplier of such product support brackets is Trion. Referring to the Trion catalog, which contains approximately sixty pages of product display-related materials, the product display brackets are formed to permit the product packages to be easily removed and conveniently accessed by the consumer and are conducive to having the product packages removed in multiples, e.g. several product packages at once. In some instances, however, the retailer does not want the product packages to be easily removed in multiples because the product has a significant retail cost. The ability for a consumer to be able to quickly grasp several product packages at once does not restrict shoplifting activities adequately. For example, printer ink cartridges are often packaged in blister pack plastic packaging that are easily lifted from product display boards in multiples and transported out of the store without being paid for. Printer ink cartridges are sufficiently expensive that having a multiple group of them shoplifted from the retail store would constitute a substantial loss for the store. Often, the printer ink cartridges are placed in a restricted area in which only store personnel has access thereto, resulting in a higher labor cost in selling the product to the consumer.
Accordingly, it would be desirable for a product support bracket to restrict the removal of only one product package at a time from the support member. It would also be desirable for a product support bracket to facilitate the automatic movement of product packages to the front of the support member for presentation to the consumer without requiring the product packages to be manually moved forwardly on the support member.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages of the known prior art by providing a product support bracket that restricts movement of the product off the support member.
It is another object of this invention to provide a product support bracket that facilitates the displacement of product packages to the end of the support member when the front product package is removed from the support member.
It is a feature of this invention that the support member of a product support bracket is formed with a head portion that has a transverse dimension which is larger than the opening in the product package mounted on the support member.
It is another feature of this invention that the head portion of a product support member is operable to force the removal of the product package from the support member by moving the product package to the side of the support member.
It is an advantage of this invention that the product packages mounted on a product support bracket can only be removed from the support member one at a time.
It is another advantage of this invention that the risks associated with shoplifting of product packages mounted on a product support bracket is reduced.
It is still another advantage of this invention that the product support bracket can be oriented to feed product packages to the head portion whenever the front product package is removed from the support member.
It is still another feature of this invention that the head portion can be formed into a triangular shape in which the hypotenuse is oriented perpendicular to the linearly extending support member.
It is yet another feature of this invention that the length of the hypotenuse of the triangularly-shaped head portion is greater than the typical width of a slot formed in blister pack product packaging.
It is yet another advantage of this invention that the triangularly-shaped head portion stops product packaging from sliding off the support member when the support member is declined with respect to horizontal in order to feed product packages toward the head portion whenever the front product package is removed from the support member.
It is still another feature of this invention that the support member can be formed with an integral product information member.
It is a further feature of this invention that the mounting member can be formed in different configurations to permit the use of the product support member with a variety of display boards.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a product display bracket for use in retail stores that permits the removal of product packages only one at a time from the support member.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a product display bracket that is durable in construction, inexpensive of manufacture, carefree of maintenance, facile in assemblage, and simple and effective in use.
These and other objects, features and advantages are accomplished according to the instant invention by providing a product display bracket on which product packages, particularly blister pack packages, can be mounted. The product display bracket is formed with a head portion that is configured to present a dimension which is larger than the conventional opening on a blister pack product package. The head portion restricts movement of the product packages off the product display bracket in a manner that only one product package can be removed at a time. The enlarged head portion will also restrict movement of the product packages off the support member when the support member is angled downwardly to facilitate the automatic movement of the product packages toward the head portion when the front product package is removed from the support member. Preferably, the head portion is formed as a triangularly shaped member with the hypotenuse oriented perpendicularly to the flow of product packages off the support member.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4013252 (1977-03-01), Braverman
patent: 4863131 (1989-09-01), Kinseley
patent: 4905846 (1990-03-01), Calvert
patent: 5014949 (1991-05-01), Niven
patent: 5259220 (1993-11-01), Fredrickson
patent: 5499723 (1996-03-01), Morrow
patent: 5531417 (1996-07-01), Valiulis et al.
patent: 5626243 (1997-05-01), Brozak, Jr.
Trion Industries Product Catalog, pp. 17-27, available online at http://www.triononline.com/catalog.php?catid=9.
Wagner James E.
Wagner Vanessa S.
King Anita
Miller Law Group PLLC
Szumny Jon
LandOfFree
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