Apparel – Nether garments – Bifurcated
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-16
2001-06-12
Hale, Gloria M. (Department: 3741)
Apparel
Nether garments
Bifurcated
C002S238000, C002S234000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06243878
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to an article of clothing. In particular it is concerned with an article of clothing adapted to provide access to a part of body normally covered.
In mild and warm climates where ambient temperatures is relatively high an article of clothing generally serves to prevent exposure to view of particular parts of the body rather than for providing for weather protection or heat retention. In such circumstances access by a wearer to parts of the body for washing or other hygienic purposes is not usually a significant problem.
In colder climates quite apart from limiting exposure to view an article of clothing needs to provide a degree of weather protection of heat retention. However given substantial coverage of the body by an article or articles of clothing it becomes a matter of practical convenience to provide means for accessing a particular part of the body for hygienic or toiletry purposes. While a garment can be removed for such purposes it is more convenient for a part of the garment to be provided means to enable an aperture to be provided for access to a local body region.
In particular for purposes of dispensing urine from a male body a garment in the form of trousers or shorts are conventionally provided with a frontal slot, commonly referred to as a “fly”, closed by a zip, buttons or a closure means such as VELCRO hook-and-loop fasteners. This enables access to be readily made to the single male organ involved.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,578,828 (Smith) disclosed women's trousers for use in the field or by women in the military to permit then to urinate or defecate or perform both at the same time without having to undress. For this purpose the trousers are provided with both a front opening and a crotch opening that extends from the base of the front fly to the back of the rear waistband. The crotch opening may be closed by a regular zip or an “invisible” zip fastener, or buttons or VELCRO hook-and-loop fasteners, sewn along the crotch seam line of the trousers, and it is suggested that when fully closed the pulley of the crotch zip fastener should be concealed from view beneath the placket of the front fly. An internal ‘padded fly’ is provided to protect the crotch area of the wearer from the zip.
WO-93/13679 (Gregorio) discloses women's trousers having a crotch opening extending from the lower end of the front of the trouser to a region at the rear that is not as far as the rear waistband, the opening being closable by a zip or buttons etc.
Australian-Patent U-040086/93 (Pietralunga) discloses women's trousers having a crotch opening taking the form of a closed loop extending from just below the front fly to a region at the rear that is not as far as the rear waistband, the opening being closable by a zip or buttons or other forms of fastener.
An article of jeans, classics trousers, shorts, and casual bottoms with an unexposed crotch fly is generally more acceptable to the wearer (and to the observer) than one with fastening means in the crotch that is exposed.
Given that jeans, trousers etc. with crotch flies are not as yet generally worn it may be preferable to the wearer that the crotch fly not only be unexposed but also concealed sufficiently well, when the article is worn, so as to present to an observer the outward appearance or illusion that there is in fact no crotch fly present, or at least so that he/she cannot tell the difference between an article of jeans, classics trousers etc. of conventional jeans or classics trousers structure and design and an article of jeans, classics trousers, etc. with an added crotch fly.
The present invention relates to articles of jeans, classics trousers, shorts, casual bottoms etc. with added crotch openings that are concealed in such a way that when the article is worn an observer cannot (easily) mark out the difference between jeans, classics trousers, shorts, casual bottoms etc. with the added crotch opening and those of conventional jeans and classics trousers etc. structure and design; the fastening means of the crotch opening of the present invention being readily accessible by the wearer for opening and closing.
Smith & Smith (U.S. Pat. No. 4,578,828) discuss a long crotch fly (i.e. from the lower end of the front of the article and extending through the crotch as far as the rear waist) that can only be concealed by way of a ‘concealed/invisible’ zip (this is a reversed zip with a pulley back to front, standardly used in women's skirts and trousers and is invisible from the outside except for the pulley of the zip which lies exposed). They mention that the pulley can be hidden under the placket of the front fly. This raises two problems:
(a) What happens to the pulley when there is no front fly and therefore no placket (i.e. ladies' classics trousers with a side zip are common)?—It clearly lies exposed.
(b) To conceal the pulley under the placket, at least one side of the zip must deviate at its upper end so that the pulley can rest under the placket. Such ‘deviation’ of an end of the zip is quite novel in clothing and is not disclosed in any of the prior art. If there is no deviation of the zip teeth of the concealed/invisible zip then the pulley of the zip lies exposed on the surface of the garment.
Where there is no front fly and placket then the ‘concealed/invisible’ zip deviates at one end (either the front or back) under a lip of material and is thereby properly concealed under the lip when the trouser is worn (such a ‘lip’ is not visible to an observer and gives the outward appearance or illusion of a closed seam as in the front and rear seams of the article).
It is preferable that the zip pulley is unexposed when the crotch fly is closed so as to avoid problems of an exposed zip pulley being caught by everyday objects which may in turn lead to otherwise avoidable wear and tear in that region of the article, as well as for the reasons of concealment presented earlier.
The present invention discloses women's jeans, classics trousers etc. with a long crotch fly (i.e. extending from the lower end of the front of the trouser/jean/sportswear item through the crotch and as far as the rear waist) where the fastening means is fully concealed when the article is worn and the fastening means is closed—both with regular zips/buttons that are concealed under flaps/facings of material, and concealed/invisible zips where the pulley of the zip is also properly concealed.
Stradley (U.S. Pat. No. 510,595) and Pasquier (FR-1090076) are the only persons known other than Smith & Smith (U.S. Pat. No. 4,578,828) who disclose concealment means of a zip or button fastener of an opening in trousers that extends through the crotch.
Stradley (U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,595) discusses concealment of a crotch opening in so far as there is a crotch fly extending all-the-way-around (from the front waist and through the crotch as far as the rear waist) whose fastening means may be covered by opposing folded edges of the sides of the garment that are provided with interior lining and that meet (to cover a regular zip). Stadley does not disclose whether or not the sides of her garment each have a line of top-stitching close to and parallel to the line of the folded edges—if not, then her folded edges will tend not to lie flat onto the sides of the garment when the article is worn; parallel top-stitching reinforces the ‘concealment flaps’ (i.e., the folded edges) with an inner boundary that sets them in place, thereby significantly improving their ‘staying flat’ properties when the article is worn. If Stradley intended her covering means to be top-stitched along the full length of the crotch fly, then her garment is less effective from the point of view of concealment of the presence of a crotch fly (conventional top-stitching being visible to an observer) than one with covering means that is not top-stitched yet that rests flat onto the sides of the garment through other reinforcement means that is concealed from the exterior view (e.g. novel means disclosed in the present invention).
Pasquier (FR-1090
Khemka Sheel
Osei Nana-Akoto
Hale Gloria M.
Lowe Hauptman & Gilman & Berner LLP
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