Card – picture – or sign exhibiting – Check – label – or tag – Bottle-carried indicia
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-16
2003-07-22
Swann, J. J. (Department: 3677)
Card, picture, or sign exhibiting
Check, label, or tag
Bottle-carried indicia
C215S365000, C359S440000, C359S809000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06594928
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to apparatus to facilitate identifying information located on containers. More particularly, the invention relates to apparatus adapted to be secured to containers, for example, pharmaceutical or chemical containers, to identify information, for example, information relating to the contents of the containers, located on the containers.
Pharmaceuticals are an important and beneficial development of modern life. Humans often take or ingest more than one pharmaceutical to treat different conditions. It is important that the correct pharmaceutical be selected, from the plurality of pharmaceuticals in the user's possession, to treat a specific condition. In addition, the correct or proper dosage of the pharmaceutical should be taken for most effective results. Taking a wrong or incompatible medication, or an incorrect or improper dose of the medication can result in substantial detriment to, or even the death of, the user. For example, the study, “Drug-Related Morbidity and Mortality: A Cost of Illness Model”, by J. Lylee Bootman, Dean of University of Arizona College of Pharmacy & Jeffrey Johnson, published on Oct. 9, 1995, in volume 155 of Archives of Internal Medicine, showed that the U.S. cost of dealing with problems due to prescription drug misuses from numerous causes is estimated at $75 billion and causes an estimated 198,000 premature deaths per year making it the largest cause of preventable death in the U.S. today.
Containers, for example, such as pharmaceutical containers, food containers, chemical containers and the like, have labels, fixedly taped and/or glued on outer peripheral, often cylindrical, sidewalls, which include substantial amounts of information on the product included in the container and its proper or recommended conditions or use. Such information, by necessity, is commonly set forth in relatively small print, for example, using substantially the same font everywhere, making it relatively difficult to read the information. Difficulty in reading is particularly true when the user of the material included in the container is temporarily or permanently visually impaired.
It would be advantageous to provide a system for easily and rapidly identifying information located on containers, even when the information is provided in a relatively small and/or difficult to read format.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Apparatus to facilitate identifying information located on a container have been discovered. The present invention provides for very quick, reliable and effective identification of information located on a container, for example, a pharmaceutical or chemical container, even when such information is presented in a small and/or otherwise difficult to see format. The container is provided with a very straightforward, easy to use system to facilitate identifying information located on the container. Ultimately, the user of the container is provided with an increased degree of comfort, safety, and assurance that he or she is using the specific desired material, for example, the pharmaceutical included in the container and using it, in the recommended or proper way.
In one broad aspect, the present invention is directed to apparatus to facilitate identifying information located on containers. The apparatus comprise members adapted to be secured to the containers. These members include magnifying lenses. The members preferably are removably secured to the containers, more preferably, secured other than adhesively to the containers. The member, by including a magnifying lens or magnifying lenses, which provides an enlarged image of the information located on the container, very effectively allows the user of the container to see the information located on the container. Thus, for example, the user of a container, such as a pharmaceutical or chemical container, can secure the present member on the container after having purchased or otherwise have been provided with the material in the container. In so doing, the user can clearly see the information located on the container and, ultimately, more effectively, reliably and safely use the contents of the container. Alternately, the container can be sold or otherwise provided to the consumer with the present member, including the magnifying lens, secured to the container prior to or at the time the container is provided to the consumer.
In one particularly useful embodiment, the magnifying lens comprises an elastic or elastomeric material, more preferably such a material which is near transparent, transparent or even optically clear. At least a portion of the member and/or the magnifying lens preferably are made of a polymeric material, more preferably an elastomeric polymeric material, such as an elastomeric thermoplastic or thermosetting polymeric material, for example, rubber. Thermoplastic members are very useful in relatively mild environments and in single use applications. Thermosetting members are advantageous under more severe conditions, for example, elevated temperature conditions, and/or when the member is to be reused, for example, reused repeatedly.
In another useful embodiment, the member comprises a substantially rigid material, for example, a substantially rigid polymeric material. To illustrate, the magnifying lens or lenses or the entire member can be made of such substantially rigid material. Members comprising such substantially rigid materials are particularly useful in embodiments in which the magnifying lens or lenses are made of such materials—for example, to provide enhanced clarity in viewing the magnified information—and when the member is adapted to circumscribe only a portion of the outer peripheral surface of the container. In this latter circumstance, the rigidity of the material can be useful in securing, for example, frictionally securing, the member to the container. Also, members made of such substantially rigid material advantageously include a plurality of inwardly extending projections or nibs adapted, when the member is secured to the container, to contact the outer peripheral surface of the container so that at least one of the projections is located between the magnifying lens and the outer peripheral surface. Such projections may also allow the member made of substantially rigid material to be secured to containers of slightly different sizes.
A very useful embodiment of the invention provides that the member, including the magnifying lens, is an integral or unitary structure.
The member may include a securement portion, in addition to the magnifying lens, adapted to facilitate securing the member to the container. This securement portion may comprise an elastomeric material. The securement portion preferably is made of a polymeric material, more preferably an elastomeric polymeric material, such as an elastomeric thermoplastic rubber or thermosetting, e.g., silicone, polymeric material. More preferably, the securement portion is unitary with the magnifying lens.
The present members can be made using techniques which are conventional and well known, such as molding and/or other processes conventionally used to produce articles from polymeric materials.
In one embodiment, the container includes an outer peripheral surface and the member is adapted, when it is secured to the container, to circumscribe at least a portion, preferably a major portion—this is at least about 50%, of the outer peripheral surface of the container. The member may be in the form of a C-clamp and only partially circumscribe the outer peripheral surface of the container. Such partially circumscribing members advantageously comprise substantially rigid polymeric materials, such as certain acrylics, for example polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and the like; polycarbonates; other substantially rigid polymeric materials and the like. The member can circumscribe all of the outer peripheral surface of the container. The magnifying lens preferably is adapted, when the member is secured to the container, to circumscribe at least a portion, preferably a majo
Clawson Burrell E.
Clawson Joan U.
Chop Andrea
Stout, Uxa Buyan & Mullins, LLP
Swann J. J.
Uxa Frank J.
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