Chairs and seats – Detachable supplemental flexible pad or cover – For child seat
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-17
2001-05-29
Nelson, Jr., Milton (Department: 3624)
Chairs and seats
Detachable supplemental flexible pad or cover
For child seat
C297S256170, C297S423100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06237998
ABSTRACT:
I. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
a. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to seat covers and, in particular, to covers for shopping cart basket seats for children.
b. Prior Art
Most supermarkets and a variety of other stores provide customers with shopping carts. The typical shopping cart has a folding child seat in which a young child can sit as the cart is pushed through the store. Although ubiquitous, these seats leave much to be desired.
One problem is that a great many people use the shopping cart. Microorganisms abound on the handle of the cart and on various other exposed cart surfaces. Microorganisms and other contaminants pass from the exposed surfaces to the child, who is often touching and in some cases chewing on the exposed surfaces. Prior art devices such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,204,695, 4,323,430 and 4,655,502 all disclose supplements for use in shopping cart child seats, but all of these devices leave portions of the cart exposed and within the reach of the child.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,655,502 and 5,238,293 disclose a shopping cart cushion and seat cover, respectively. Each device has leg holes through which the child's legs extend. However, in both cases the leg holes are open. The child can reach through the holes with his or her hand and touch exposed surfaces of the cart. In both devices, the child may pull his or her feet up, touch them with their hands, and sometimes even put one of their feet up to their mouth. As shoes are usually dirty, it would be desirable to prevent the child from touching their dirty shoes while sitting in the shopping cart.
Another problem is that the child is left unsecured within the seat. Many children are injured each year from falling out of or against the child seat. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,204,695 and 4,655,502 propose a restraining strap that extends through the backrest of the child seat and around the child. In both arrangements, however, there is a buckle in the front of the strap that rests adjacent to the child's stomach. If the buckle is tightened sufficiently to restrain the child, the buckle digs into the child's skin, making the child uncomfortable and sometimes leaving a mark on the skin.
An active child can also disengage the buckle, rendering the restraining strap useless. Even if the strap were to be reoriented so that buckle is behind the back support of the seat, the child could reach behind the seat and unlatch the buckle.
An additional problem relates to storage of seat covers when not in use. U.S. Pat. No. 5,238,293 proposes rolling up the seat cover when not in use, and then securing a strap about the rolled-up seat cover. Under this arrangement, a significant portion of the seat is exposed during storage. The seat cover can gather dust, get dirty, or otherwise become unsanitary during storage.
II. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention seeks to overcome deficiencies in the prior art. The invention relates to a child seat cover that prevents the child from touching exposed surfaces of the seat. The seat cover protects the child from coming into contact with the various microorganisms, dirt and other contamination on the surface of the seat itself.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a shopping cart seat cover for a child's shopping cart seat includes means for preventing the child from touching the surface of the shopping cart. The seat cover may also include additional features, such as means for preventing the child from touching the child's own feet, means for storing the seat cover when not in use, means for retaining the child within the seat, and/or means for preventing the child from disengaging the means for retaining the child within the seat.
In one of many ways to embody the invention, a shopping cart seat cover has a shopping cart seat cover body made from flexible sheet material. The seat cover body has a front panel having an upper portion and a lower portion. There is a handle fold at the upper portion of the front panel, and an interior seat liner panel extending from the front panel at the handle fold. The interior seat liner panel has a front and a back, and right and left child leg apertures in the front portion of the interior seat liner panel. There is a rear seat basket fold at the back of the interior panel, and a rear flap extending from the interior panel at the rear seat basket fold. The rear flap has right and left safety strap apertures. The interior panel includes a plurality of aperture closure flaps extending across the left leg aperture and a plurality of aperture closure flaps extending across the right leg aperture of the interior panel. The interior panel also has right and left shopping cart side rail cover flaps. The shopping cart seat cover includes left and right side shopping cart handle covers. The seat cover also has a safety strap with a clasp, and the safety strap extends through the right and left safety flap apertures of the rear panel, the clasp located in between the interior panel and the rear flap (so that even if the child reaches back behind the seat, he or she cannot grab ahold of the clasp). A child foot shield storage pouch extends downwardly from the front panel, the storage pouch having an interior volume sufficiently large to accommodate the shopping cart seat cover body.
Alternative embodiments may include more or fewer features than described in the previous paragraph. One additional feature is that the left and right shopping cart side rail cover flaps are each formed by sewing a respective portion of the front panel to a respective portion of the interior panel to form a structure that is substantially closed on the front, right and left sides of the front portion of the shopping cart seat cover body. The seat cover is adapted to completely cover the front and sides of a shopping cart child's seat. The shopping cart seat cover may be made of a variety of different materials, but one preferred embodiment employs single-ply sail material.
In a particular embodiment, the storage pouch includes a closure. The seat cover has a first mode in which the seat cover body is adapted to be placed on a child seat of the shopping cart, and a second mode in which the seat cover body is secured within the storage pouch. The closure serves to secure the storage pouch shut in the second mode. In a particular embodiment, in the first mode, the front panel and child foot shield storage pouch together extend downwardly from the handle fold a distance of at least 16 inches to prevent a child from reaching over the handle of the shopping cart and touching his or her feet. Similarly, in one embodiment, in the first mode, the rear panel extends downwardly from the rear seat basket fold a distance of at least 8 inches. The child is thus prevented from reaching behind the seat and grabbing the safety strap.
This has been a brief summary of some of the major points of the invention. However, there are various other aspects of the invention, as will become apparent from studying the drawings, the Detailed Description that follows, and the claims.
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patent: 5238293 (1993-08-01), Gibson
patent: 5547250 (1996-08-01), Childers
patent: 5678888 (1997-10-01), Sowell et al.
patent: 5791732 (1998-08-01), Lucree
patent: 5842741 (1998-12-01), Onorini
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