Fabric color care method

Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces – auxiliary compositions – Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing – For cleaning a specific substrate or removing a specific...

Reexamination Certificate

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C510S276000, C510S279000, C510S406000, C510S466000, C510S470000, C510S499000, C510S500000, C510S504000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06790819

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to fabric care compositions, articles of manufacture and/or methods of use for treating fabrics to improve fabric appearance, especially with regards to color of fabrics, especially those that have been worn and having a faded appearance.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There is a continuous need for improved compositions, products, and methods that provide useful benefits to fabrics, especially clothing, such as maintaining and/or improving a good appearance, especially fabric color, especially for fabric that have been worn, through a simple and convenient application of a product.
Consumers commonly judge the desirability and wearability of a garment by many appearance criteria, such as, absence of color fading, absence of wrinkles, absence of soiling and staining, absence of damage such as pilling, and the like. It is preferable that these benefits are provided via simple and convenient consumer compositions, methods and products, that can be applied in the consumer's home. These consumer compositions and products are preferably safe, and do not involve complicated and/or unsafe treatments and/or applications. Desirably they comprise treatments that are familiar to the consumers, such as spraying, soaking, adding to the wash cycle, adding to the rinse cycle, and/or adding to the drying cycle.
Many published fabric care compositions methods try to provide fabric maintenance benefits, e.g., keep fabric from, e.g., fading, wear, pilling, soiling, staining, shrinkage, and the like. However, fabric articles, such as clothing, that are worn and used will get damaged via, e.g., mechanical abrasion in use and in the laundry washing processes. The resulting worn, damaged fabric can have loosened fabric weave and pilling. Worn, damaged color fabric especially has a undesirable faded appearance. A common method that the consumer can practice to improve and/or restore the color of such worn, faded fabric is the use of fabric dyes. However, dyeing processes done at home tend to result in color bleeding in the subsequent washes that can discolor other fabrics in the same wash. Furthermore, when the fabric color is not uniform, such as when the fabric has a design with different colors and/or different tones of the same color, the use of fabric dyes is not desirable.
The present invention comprises compositions, articles of manufacture, and/or method of use that can be used to improve color fidelity, i.e., recover, restore, rejuvenate color of worn, damaged clothing upon a single application. The color benefit provided by the compositions, articles and/or methods of the present invention will endure after the treated fabric is washed at least one time, and preferably at least after the fabric is washed two times.
The present invention optionally can provide other fabric care benefits, such as abrasion resistance, wrinkle removal, pill prevention, anti-shrinkage, and fabric shape retention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to fabric color care compositions, preferably aqueous and/or alcoholic fabric color care compositions, and fabric care methods for treating fabrics by direct application of said fabric color care composition to said fabrics. The present invention further relates to articles of manufacture that facilitate the use of said fabric color care compositions to restore and/or rejuvenate the color of worn, faded color fabrics, such that the color benefit can be detected after the treated fabric is washed at least one time, and more preferably at least two times. The present invention also relates to the use of selected enduring fabric color care actives and composition comprising said enduring fabric color care actives to restore and/or rejuvenate the color of worn, faded color fabrics such that the color benefit lasts at least after the treated fabric is washed and dried one time, preferably at least after the treated fabric is washed and dried two times.
The enduring fabric color care active that can provide a long lasting color restoration and/or rejuvenation benefit to worn, faded fabrics is characterized by its ability to reduce the two following properties of said fabric, namely, its reflectance and its pill number.
A preferred enduring fabric color care composition comprises an effective amount of fabric color care active preferably being selected from the group consisting of:
(A) water soluble and/or water dispersible cationic polymer; said polymer being selected from the group consisting of natural polymers, synthetic polymers, substituted materials thereof, derivatised materials thereof, and mixtures thereof;
(B) water dispersible reactive silicone, including silicones comprising amino functional groups; and
(C) mixtures thereof;
said composition additionally being essentially free of any material that would cause the treated fabric to feel unduly sticky, or “tacky” to the touch under usage conditions, and wherein said fabric color care active is preferably colorless at the level used, to minimize the change of hue and to improve the color fidelity.
Said composition is applied to fabric in a positive step, e.g., spraying, dipping, and/or soaking process, followed by a drying step to maximize the application and retention of the active to the surface of the fibers. Preferably the treatment is by spray and/or roller so that the active is primarily applied to the visible surface of the fabric. The present invention also preferably relates to the fabric care compositions incorporated into a spray dispenser, to create an article of manufacture that can facilitate treatment of fabric articles and/or surfaces with said compositions containing fabric color care active and other optional ingredients at a level that is effective.
For some compositions, where inhalation is a concern, it is more suitable to treat fabric by dipping in such compositions.
Also, concentrated aqueous, alcoholic, or solid, preferably powder, fabric color care compositions can be used to prepare such compositions for treating worn, faded and/or damaged fabric.
The present invention also relates to a method for restoring and/or rejuvenating color of a worn, faded color fabric, wherein the color benefit can be detected after the treated fabric is washed one time, and wherein said method comprises applying an effective amount of a fabric color care active to said fabric, wherein said fabric color care active is selected from the group consisting of:
(A) water soluble and/or water dispersible cationic polymer, substituted materials thereof, derivatised materials thereof, and mixtures thereof;
(B) water dispersible reactive silicone, including amino functional silicone; and mixtures thereof; and
(C) mixtures thereof;
and wherein the color restoration and/or rejuvenation is characterized by the ability of said active to change the properties of a worn, faded black cotton (chino) twill test fabric, said changes in properties comprising:
(a) a percentage reflectance reduction &Dgr;R of at least about 3%; preferably at least about 5%, more preferably at least about 8%, and even more preferably at least about 10%; and
(b) a percentage pill number reduction &Dgr;P of at least about 10%, preferably at least about 20%, more preferably at least about 40%, and even more preferably at least about 80%.
It is especially preferred that an article of the present invention, or any container containing said composition or a concentrate used to prepare a composition of the present invention have a set of instructions associated therewith to inform the consumer that the composition can provide the color restoration benefit to worn, damaged and faded color fabric. Without knowledge of this unobvious benefit, a consumer would be highly unlikely to treat the visible surface of the fabric, especially older fabrics, and might even discard the fabric when it could be substantially restored to near-new condition.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to fabric color care compositions, preferably aqueous fabric color care compositions, a

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