Books – strips – and leaves – Book – element thereof – or accessory therefor – Binding
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-23
2001-07-03
Fridie, Jr., Willmon (Department: 3722)
Books, strips, and leaves
Book, element thereof, or accessory therefor
Binding
C281S015100, C281S036000, C281S046000, C281S047000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06254135
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
This present invention relates to an album construction for holding and displaying folded printed cards, particularly greeting cards.
2. Brief Description of the Art
During holidays or other special occasions, the exchange of greeting cards is a salutatory custom. Greeting cards form a tangible expression of well wishes from family and friends and are often accorded prominent placement atop tables, counters, mantels, and the like; however, they are all to often discarded within a short period of time. Even when not discarded, collections of greeting cards are often stacked and stored in such a manner as to render infrequent the enjoyment derived through retrieving and viewing their contents. In an attempt to provide a convenient manner of storage for greeting cards that both enables and encourages repeat viewing long after the passage of holiday seasons and events, several inventive techniques have been developed over the years. Many of these techniques involved the construction of a plurality of spaced-apart, side-by-side strands formed so that the folded card may be suspended or supported therefrom. Typical of these card and sheet paper holders may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 104,415; 104,863; 158,839; 308,295; 936,223; 3,789,526; 4,840,407; 4,852,280; and 5,573,276 and German Patent No. 23017 and Swiss Patent No. 177949.
While the aforementioned devices adequately retain the cards therein, there remain several problems inherent in many of their designs. Many of these card holding devices are both labor intensive and time consuming to produce. Because multiple individual elastic strands are mounted in a side-by-side manner, great care is required during the manufacturing process to assure proper alignment of the strands free of overlap. Typically, a central rectangular bar, core, or post member is provided to support the series of strands in a side-by-side relationship which is subsequently mounted to the spine of a folder. The ends of the strands were secured at each end of the bar, core or post member. This process is costly. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,276, the elastic strands were wrapped around an inner lining material which is then affixed to the folder. While cheaper to construct, this methodology is still costly and its assembly is somewhat complex. Specifically, this card holder requires both a full inner liner and an outer album cover that must be mated together in particular fashion. Such a requirement limits the ability to buy discreet parts of the device from the lowest cost provider and to assemble them in the most cost efficient manner.
What is needed then is a album for holding and displaying greeting cards that is aesthetically pleasing, consists of individual parts each of which may be produced quickly and cheaply, and whose parts can be assembled efficiently and interchangeably to produce marketable variations suitable to the needs and desires of the consumer.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, one aspect of the invention is directed to an album construction for holding and displaying printed, folded cards comprising:
(a) a rectangular support having a center portion and two outer portions, said center portion being longitudinally shorter than the two outer portions and thereby forming two bounded slots at each end of the center portion;
(b) an elastic cord having both ends attached to said rectangular support and being of sufficient length to encircle the center portion of the rectangular support at least twice and thereby produce a series of at least two taut elastic strands located immediately adjacent to each other whereby the fold of the printed cards may be held between one of the taut elastic strands and the rectangular support; and
(c) an album cover having a central spine and two outer covers, said rectangular support affixed and bounded by to the spine.
The present invention advantageously allows a manufacturer to quickly assemble these low cost materials together. Furthermore, the rectangular support and elastic cord material may be easily assembled together at one location and then their combination can be easily shipped to another location where it is combined with the album cover. Moreover, the subassembly of rectangular support and elastic cord may be used with a wide variety of different album covers (e.g., covers having different written indicia on the cover).
The album construction allows people to make separate collections of cards based on a particular event (e.g., Christmas 1999) or by a particular person or persons who sent the cards. Also, this album construction makes easy viewing of both the inside and outside of a card.
REFERENCES:
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patent: 5573276 (1996-11-01), Nomura et al.
patent: 23017 (1882-10-01), None
patent: 177949 (1934-06-01), None
Ambroziak Jeffrey R.
Fridie Jr. Willmon
Girard Design LLC
Simons William A.
Wiggins & Dana
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