Supports – Supporting base – Coaster or caster cup
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-03
2003-06-17
Ramirez, Ramon O. (Department: 3632)
Supports
Supporting base
Coaster or caster cup
Reexamination Certificate
active
06578809
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved means for preventing dripping from outer surfaces, including vessels designed to house liquids, onto other surfaces. More specifically, the present invention relates to a novel enhanced apparatus, method and system for precluding undesired leakage, dripping, or the like liquid transmissions, from the external surfaces of articles, particularly those used to house, transport and enable potable liquids to be consumed.
Commercial success has yet to be achieved for use of a supplemental absorptive strip means issuing and placed over a lower section of desired cup, in spite of the long history of failed attempts. Likewise, the instant teachings mitigate or completely control the unaddressed problem of condensate and the like dripping from drinking vessel onto users.
2. Prior Art Patents
Attention is called to the following United States Letters Patents and foreign publications, each of which has been examined and found to be inventively different than the instant teachings:
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,425,497; 5,645,196; NL 6611523; DT 1429226;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,182; FR 1377535; U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,065,589; 4,681,239;
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,540,611; 3,103,295; 5,925,466; 5,693,714;
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,415,499; 4,948,443; 4,756,337; 2,617,549; and, U.S. Pat. No. 973,085;
during searches conducted with access to the Examiner's foreign art collection, inter alia.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,497 (the '497 patent) issued for the JAVA JACKET®, an insulating sleeve for hot beverage containers that shields a user's hands from the sameThe '497 patent, as in at least half of the art reviewed in conjunction with the instant filing, it relates to insulating means that circle cups. It shows that invention is still available even within the narrowed and highly patented field of art defined by the instant teachings. In contradistinction to the instant subject matter, however, the materials are not shown to include plastic or rubber based compounds.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,681,239 (the '239 patent) issued to Roman Products on Jul. 21, 1987 showed an insulating container for liquids having an annular sealing member of resilient cellular material. The '239 patent is distinguished from the instant teachings in that it has a rim on its outer surface of an elongated annular side wall that is partially axially in register with an annular recess.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,182 (the '182 patent) issued Dec. 28, 1993 for a COASTER to Laybourne. The '182 patent was targeted at applicants problem, but in lieu of providing an elegantly simple solution, disclosed mechanically questionable and over-engineered coupling devices to attempt to join an absorbent member with a multiplicity of interconnected capillary spaces.
Unlike the '182 patent, the teachings of the present invention present a variety of variations on the ‘one-size fits all’ theme, with no need for overly elaborate (expensive, and failure-prone) mechanical coupling add-ons.
German Offenlegungsschrift 1429226 from Feb. 6, 1969 showed a disposable Beaker cup consisting of a thin-walled plastic beaker along with a re-useable holder. This disclosure is markedly different from the instant teachings requiring at least two pieces and at least one inner ring shaped element. This teaching does show elastic deformation as its sole common element with the teachings of the present invention, which may be injected, molded cut and pasted or likewise fabricated from one unitary piece.
Likewise, Pontneau-Plastic S.A. garnered French Patent No. 1,377,535 for a goblet having a disposable attachment that may have served to limit movement as claimed in the patent, in addition to acting a coaster means for mitigating spills. Unlike the instant teachings, however, this invention included an aperture on the ventral surface and its primary function was to render the goblet immobile on a resting surface.
Two separate problems relating to the containment of cold liquids in open vessels are addressed by the teachings of this invention. The first problem is that of spillage. It is well known that a liquid in a nearly full open vessel can spill over the edges if the vessel is placed in certain positions. This is so because a liquid contained in a vessel will assume the shape of the vessel except for the upper surface of the liquid, which will assume the form of a plane parallel to the plane of the surface of the earth.
Thus, if the vessel is oriented or tipped in such a manner that it does not completely enclose the aforesaid upper surface of the liquid, the liquid will spill out of the vessel. Such tipping can occur in an instant of time, so that spillage is a common problem particularly in the use of drinking vessels such as cups, beakers, glasses and the like.
The second problem experienced by users of vessels containing cold liquids is the problem of condensation, or dew formation. As used in this discussion, the term dew includes any kind of condensation of water on a surface. Dew is a thin film of water that has condensed on surface of objects. Dew forms when cold objects cool the shallow. The term condensation refers to a change from the gaseous state of a substance to the liquid state. In the present case, the condensation occurs because the capacity of air to hold water vapor decreases as the air is cooled. The temperature at which condensation begins, for a sample of air with a given water vapor content, is termed the dew point. In general, rooms in which many people are present will have a relatively high dew point because of the high content of water vapor in exhaled breath. Likewise, outdoors on a warm day on which cold drinks are particularly desirable, the dew point will be relatively high.
From this brief discussion it will be clear that both the problems of spillage and dew formation as discussed above can be ameliorated in related ways. Small amounts of liquid that are spilled over the rim of a vessel, and small amounts of dew can be absorbed by a suitable medium. This absorption occurs by several physical processes, including capillary action and adsorption. These processes can be explained by considering the effects of two opposing forces: adhesion, the attractive force between the molecules of fluid and the material, and cohesion, the attractive force between the molecules of the fluid. Thus, provision of a suitable structure and medium for absorbing spillage and dew is one mechanism underlying the teachings of this invention.
In addition, on the basis of the mechanism of dew formation on the surface of a vessel containing a cold liquid described above, dew formation can be inhibited by insulation means for decreasing the transfer of heat to the vessel surface from the layer Of overlying air in contact with that surface.
What has been discovered is that in combining a flexible grip, the right materials and a reusable and environmentally friendly molded, injected, sprayed, layered or painted coating an ultimately consumer friendly apparatus, having memory, absorbency and low cost can be offered for consideration.
Attention is called first to traditional or conventional ‘coasters’ or generally planar objects designed to shield a piece of furniture's surface from the bottom of a drinking cup. Unlike the instant teachings, such devices do not protect other crucial surfaces (such as a user's clothing, for example) from those undesired aliquots escaping, for example, from a cup.
The COZIES® brand of beverage cooler (San Diego County, Calif.), has not been found to include solid ventral surfaces, in contradistinction to the instant teachings. Beverage insulators generally focus on covering the majority of the surface area of a bottle or can—where the majority of the heat would be transferred. No attention to the bottom portion is shown in such disclosures, nor is it suggested how or why the same could be relevant to such design at a technical level.
In short, despite the numerous attempts to innovate within this area, as shown
Dimella Vincent A.
Gluck, Esq. Peter Jon
Intellepharm, Inc.
Patent Law Firm, P.C.
Ramirez Ramon O.
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