Apparel – Hand or arm coverings – Gloves
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-31
2001-07-10
Mohanty, Bibhu (Department: 3765)
Apparel
Hand or arm coverings
Gloves
C002S160000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06256792
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a glove or mitt principally for use as a catching glove by goalkeepers in games such as ice hockey. For convenience, the term “glove” will be used herein, as it is common parlance, even though such gloves may only have one pocket for the player's four fingers.
The glove of this invention allows a sports implement such as a hockey stick, or the handle of other sports implements, such as a tennis racquet, or of a tool, to be held without the player using his thumb, and accordingly it may also be useful for players of various games, and for workers, needing to hold such handles when a thumb is missing or disabled.
2. Prior Art
In the game of ice hockey, goalkeeper's hands require considerable protection since it is necessary for these to catch or deflect hard pucks which travel very fast. For the catching hand, which may be the right or left hand, gloves have been used which are basically similar to those used in baseball, having a padded finger pocket or pockets and a padded thumb pocket connected by webbing which spans the gap between these pockets, and which is used to catch a puck. However, unlike with baseball gloves, hockey goalkeeper's catching gloves also have to allow the goalkeeper to hold and manipulate a hockey stick, and in the known construction the gloves often have too much padding and are too stiff to allow good stick handling, especially if the goalkeeper does not have strong hands.
There have been a number of past attempts to improve on the ability of a hockey goalkeeper's catching glove properly to grasp his hockey stick. These efforts all have one or more critical drawbacks, such as compromising the glove or goalkeeper's catching ability, adding too much weight, being too complicated with too many moving parts increasing the likelihood of breakdown, or failing to provide a quick and sure grasp and release of the stick.
Specific prior art designs are described in the following U.S. patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,418 to Marcotte, issued Nov. 6, 1990; and
U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,008 to Shane, issued Jul. 25, 1995.
Marcotte describes a glove having thumb and finger pockets of generally conventional type, but having, on the outer or back side of the finger pocket, an additional part for gripping the stick. This is a so-called “gripping pocket”, which is a flexible pocket into which the fingers can be inserted. An opening is provided connecting the usual finger pocket to the gripping pocket, so that when the goalkeeper wishes to grip the stick he can move his fingers from the finger pocket to the gripping pocket and then use the fingers to hold the stick between the inside of the gripping pocket and an outer side portion of the collapsed finger pocket which is held against the stick by the thumb. The drawback of this is that the goalkeeper may need to move his fingers quickly from the gripping pocket to the finger pocket in order to make a save, and this may be awkward with this construction.
In Shane, the stick is held in the normal way, between the finger pocket and the thumb pocket, but means are provided to improve the grip on the stick. The means shown by Shane are believed to add undesirable weight and restrict the catching ability.
In both these prior patents, the thumb is needed to apply holding forces to one side of the hockey stick, and accordingly these constructions do not offer any solution to a player of ice hockey, or of any other game, where the player has a missing or disabled thumb.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention, like that of Marcotte, provides an additional part at the outside of the finger pocket or pockets (hereinafter the “finger pocket means”) which can be used to hold a stick against the outside of that pocket means. However, with the present invention, the player's fingers stay in the usual finger pocket portion of the glove, whether he is making a save or handling the stick. The glove of this invention allows the user to quickly and surely grip and release the shaft of a hockey stick without compromising the glove's ability to catch a puck, and without adding much weight. It also allows the goalkeeper to shoot forehand, backhand, and to “stickhandle”, and even execute the “slapshot”, all with the same proficiency as a forward position player.
In accordance with the one aspect of the present invention, a glove for use by a hockey goalkeeper, of the type having finger pocket means and a thumb pocket and in which the finger pocket means forms part of the glove body having an outer side or back positioned to overlie the goalkeeper's knuckles and having an inner or palm side, further comprises a hockey stick retainer which overlies a portion of the said outer side, the stick retainer being connected to control means for controlling movement of the retainer away from the outer side portion and having a stiffness such that, with the control means acting on the retainer, a hockey stick can be held firmly between the outer side portion and the retainer while all the goalkeeper's fingers remain in the finger pocket means.
The glove of this invention effectively holds the stick against the back of the catching hand, and does not require use of the thumb for holding the stick. This feature makes the glove suitable for players of other sports in which an implement handle may need to be held without the use of a thumb, and also for users of other implements or tools who lack a usable thumb. More generally, therefore, in accordance with this broader aspect of the invention, a glove for holding the handle portion of a sports implement such as a tennis or badminton racquet, or of a hockey stick or lacrosse stick, or of a tool, and having finger pocket means with an outer side overlying the user's fingers, also has a handle retainer which overlies a portion of the outer side of the finger pocket means, and is connected to control means as described above.
The control means may include spring means acting to pull the retainer towards the outer side portion. The spring means may be constituted by the resilience of the retainer, which may be in the form of a resilient gripping plate.
Preferably, the control means include a stop member which limits the movement of the retainer relative to a stiff plate located at the inner or palm side of the finger pocket means, and the finger pocket back or outer side is flexible to allow the player's fingers to be bent so that the fingertips press against the stiff plate while outwards movement of the finger knuckles causes the outer side portion of the finger pocket means to firmly grasp the stick or handle between itself and the retainer. The stiff plate “located at” the inner or palm side of the finger pocket means may be inside or outside the finger pocket means. The control means may include a hollow chamber attached to the stiff plate, and a stop member having an inner end mounted for limited movement in the chamber and having an outer end restricting movement of the retainer away from the stiff plate.
Preferably, the control means are located in an outer finger area between the second knuckles and finger tips of fingers placed within the finger pocket means, and the retainer has an additional connection to an outer end portion of the glove outwardly beyond the finger tip position. The stiff plate may be part of a palm plate forming the inner side or front of the body of the glove and of the finger pocket means. The retainer may have two spaced connections to the body of the glove both located near the outer edges of the palm plate and outwardly beyond the finger tip position. The control means may be associated with a divider between two finger pockets each of which accommodates two of a player's fingers.
Unlike with Marcotte, the finger pocket means has no aperture allowing the fingers to be moved out of the normal catching position. Also, while in Marcotte the stick is inserted under the fingertip end of the “gripping pocket”, in the present invention the entr
Jones Tullar & Cooper P.C.
Mohanty Bibhu
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