Card – picture – or sign exhibiting – Check – label – or tag – Cup- – saucer- – plate- or tray-carried indicia
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-08
2003-04-29
Davis, Cassandra H. (Department: 3611)
Card, picture, or sign exhibiting
Check, label, or tag
Cup-, saucer-, plate- or tray-carried indicia
C362S101000, C215S200000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06553696
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention pertains to drink holders and the cups contained therein. More particularly, the present invention pertains to flourescent caps and rims for drink holders.
2. Prior Art
The only known prior art are caps for drinks having various structural designs and holders for drinks having various designs.
GENERAL DISCUSSION OF THE INVENTION
The invention comprises a drink holder having a top and a lid for going on top of a drink which can glow in the dark so that the user may identify significant portions of the drink holder and of the drink top.
In the preferred embodiment, the tear away portion of a drink top and the area surrounding the tear away portion of the drink top for hot drinks may be marked with a glow means, usually a flourescent paint or non-paint material, so that the user can identify the tear portion to be torn away to expose a top opening. The tab attached to the tear portion to be torn away may be similarly treated. The area around the top opening exposed by removing the tear portion may be treated with a glow means so that the user may thereafter identify the opening in the dark. Likewise the entire top may be glow in the dark so that when a tear portion is torn away, as by pulling it away with a tab, the darkened area remaining would indicate where the top opening is located.
Non-flourescent technology could also be used. A light, carried in this example by fiber optics, could travel around the rim of the drink container or drink holder as described below. The light to be carried in this fashion could be generated by a bulb powered by a battery at a remote location and carried by the fiber optics to the drink rim. This would be a particularly significant improvement where the drink container was in a vehicle and the optics could be wired through the vehicle battery.
This would allow the user, after the application of a light or other triggering reaction to begin the fluorescence, to identify the glowing portion or area and the dark portion which would be the opening.
Similarly the area around a straw opening where a straw would be inserted could be surrounded by flourescent material so that the user could the spot where the straw was inserted.
In addition, a drink holder is described having a rim into which the drink fits. This rim could be made to glow in the dark so that when the drink container (a can or cup) was removed from the drink holder the drink holder rim would glow and be visible in the dark to make it easier to place the drink container within that location. The drink container could be a molded part of the car or could be a separate product attachable to. the car as within the window as is known in the prior art. The inventive concept is the lighting, through electric or flourescent means.
Different colors could be used for different portions of the drink holder in order to make it more easily identified.
These improvements could also be incorporated in a reusable cup. In that case either the opening of the top could be illuminated or using the same or a different color a switch on a cup could be moved to the open position allowing a marker for that open position to either illuminated or darkened.
In addition to the lid being made of glow in the dark material could be made of a hyper reflective material. The rim of a cup may be similarly lit to allow easier placement or replacement of the lid and in order for the user to visualize where the lid is going on the cup.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide for a glow in the dark lid for a drink container.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a lid for a drink container which indicates the position of the opening in the lid.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a lid for a drink container which indicates the position of the tab or lever for opening the lid.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a holder for a drink container which indicates the position of the opening in the top of the holder to allow the user to find it easier in the dark.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become better understood hereinafter from a consideration of the specification with reference to the accompanying drawings forming part thereof, and in which like numerals correspond to parts throughout the several views of the invention.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4832214 (1989-05-01), Schrader et al.
patent: 5171081 (1992-12-01), Pita et al.
patent: 5807156 (1998-09-01), Owen
patent: 6092905 (2000-07-01), Koehn
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