Amusement devices: toys – Simulated weapon or protector
Reexamination Certificate
1996-02-06
2001-06-19
Wax, Robert A. (Department: 1652)
Amusement devices: toys
Simulated weapon or protector
C042S054000, C124S074000, C124S076000, C222S001000, C435S189000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06247995
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to systems for producing bioluminescent light, and to combinations of the systems with articles of manufacture including toys, textiles, food and beverages, to produce novelty items. By virtue of the combination the novelty items glow or produce or spew a bioluminescent composition. Also, provided are compositions, encapsulated bioluminescent generating reagents, and methods for producing the bioluminescence.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Luminescence is a phenomenon in which energy is specifically channeled to a molecule to produce an excited state. Return to a lower energy state is accompanied by release of a photon (hv). Luminescence includes fluorescence, phosphorescence, chemiluminescence and bioluminescence. Bioluminescence is the process by which living organisms emit light that is visible to other organisms. Luminescence may be represented as follows:
A+B→X*+Y
X*→X+hv,
where X* is an electronically excited molecule, hv represents light emission upon return of X* to a lower energy state in which creation of the excited state derives from an enzyme catalyzed reaction. The color of the emitted light in a bioluminescent (or chemiluminescent or other luminescent) reaction is characteristic of the excited molecule, and is independent from its source of excitation and temperature.
The essential condition for bioluminescence the use of molecular oxygen, either bound or free in the presence of a luciferase. Luciferases, are oxygenases, that act on a substrate luciferin in the presence of molecular oxygen and transform the substrate to an excited state. Upon return to a lower energy level energy is released in the form of light [for reviews see, e.g., McElroy et al. (1966) in
Molecular Architecture in Cell Physiology,
Hayashi et al., eds., Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J., pp. 63-80; Ward et al., Chapter 7 in
Chemi
-
and Bioluminescence,
Burr, ed., Marcel Dekker, Inc. N.Y., pp.321-358; Hastings, J. W. in (1995)
Cell Physiology:Source Book,
N. Sperelakis (ed.), Academic Press, pp 665-681;
Luminescence, Narcosis and Life in the Deep Sea,
Johnson, Vantage Press, N.Y., see, esp. pp. 50-56].
Though rare overall, bioluminescence is more common in marine organisms than in terrestrial organisms. Bioluminescence has developed from as many as thirty evolutionarily distinct origins and, thus, is manifested in a variety of ways so that the biochemical and physiological mechanisms responsible for bioluminescence in different organisms are distinct. Bioluminescent species span many genera and include microscopic organisms, such as bacteria [primarily marine bacteria including Vibrio species], fungi, algae and dinoflaggellates, to marine organisms, including arthropods, mollusks, echinoderms, and chordates, and terrestrial organism including annelid worms and insects.
Bioluminescence, as well as other types of chemiluminescence, is used for quantitative determinations of specific substances in biology and medicine. For example, luciferase genes have been cloned and exploited as reporter genes in numerous assays, for many purposes. Since the different luciferase systems have different specific requirements, they may be used to detect and quantify a variety of substances. The majority of commercial bioluminescence applications are based on firefly [
Photinus pyralis
] luciferase. One of the first and still widely used assays involves the use of firefly luciferase to the detect the presence of ATP. It is also used to detect and quantify other substrates or co-factors in the reaction. Any reaction that produces or utilizes NAD(H), NADP(H) or long chain aldehyde, either directly or indirectly, can be coupled to the light-emitting reaction of bacterial luciferase.
Another luciferase system that has been used commercially for analytical purposes is the Aequorin system. The purified jellyfish photoprotein, aequorin, is used to detect and quantify intracellular Ca
2+
and its changes under various experimental conditions. The Aequorin photoprotein is relatively small [~20 kDa], nontoxic, and can be injected into cells in quantities adequate to detect calcium over the a large concentration range [3×10
−7
to 10
−4
M].
Because of their analytical utility many luciferases and substrates therefor have been studied and well-characterized and are commercially available [e.g., firefly luciferase is available from Sigma, St. Louis, Mo., and Boehringer Mannheim Biochemicals, Indianapolis, Ind.; recombinantly produced firefly luciferase and other reagents based on this gene or for use with this protein are available from Promega Corporation, Madison, Wis.; the aequorin photoprotein luciferase from jellyfish and luciferase from Renilla are commercially available from Sealite Sciences, Bogart, Ga.; coelenterazine, the naturally-occurring substrate for these luciferases, is available from Molecular Probes, Eugene, Oreg.]. These luciferases and related reagents are used as reagents for diagnostics, quality control, environmental testing and other such analyses. These reagents have not been used in connection with entertainment and recreation for the glow, illumination and color produced upon generation of bioluminescence.
Thus, it is an object herein to exploit bioluminescence for use as a recreational product in combination with articles of manufacture to produce novelty items, including toys, personal items, foods, fountains, beverages, coating compositions, such as paints and inks, textiles, including clothing, and other such items. It is also an object herein to provide such combinations and to provide means for producing and using such combinations.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Systems and apparatus for generating bioluminescence, and combinations of these systems and apparatus with inanimate articles of manufacture to produce novelty items are provided. These novelty items, which are articles of manufacture, are designed for entertainment, recreation and amusement, include, but are not limited to: toys, particularly squirt guns; finger paints and other paints, slimy play material; textiles, particularly clothing, such as shirts, hats and sports gear suits, threads and yarns; bubbles in bubble making toys and other toys that produce bubbles; balloons; personal items, such as bath powders, body lotions, gels, powders and creams, nail polishes, make-up, toothpastes and other dentifrices, soaps, body paints, and bubble bath; items such as inks, paper; foods, such as gelatins, icings and frostings; and beverages, such as beer, wine, champagne, soft drinks, and ice cubes; fountains, including liquid “fireworks” and other such jets or sprays or aerosols of compositions that are solutions, mixtures, suspensions, powders, pastes, particles or other suitable form.
Thus, the novelty items provided herein include but are not limited to: textiles that glow, ink that glows, paints, particularly fingerpaints, that glow, paper products that glow, toys, particularly squirt guns that eject a bioluminescent fluid, dolls and dummies with internal organs or parts that glow; foods and beverages that glow, soapy compositions for blowing bubbles that produce bubbles that glow, bubble bath compositions that produce bubbles that glow, fountains that spew glowing fluid, bioluminescent “fireworks”, sparklers, magic-wand toy, and numerous other such items.
Bioluminescence is advantageously used combination with the such novelty items because it can be generated using reagents that are nontoxic, noncorrosive and nonstaining. Bioluminescence is also advantageously used because it can be sustained to provide a glow that lasts, if desired, from minutes up to hours.
Any article of manufacture that can be combined with a bioluminescence-generating system as provided herein and thereby provide entertainment, recreation amusement, including use of the items for recreation or to attract attention, such as for advertising goods and/or services that are associated with a logo or tr
Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe
Seidman Stephanie L.
Wax Robert A.
LandOfFree
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