Dispensing – Processes of dispensing
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-11
2003-11-11
Kaufman, Joseph A. (Department: 3754)
Dispensing
Processes of dispensing
C222S079000, C222S153130, C222S211000, C222S212000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06644505
ABSTRACT:
FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to self-defense devices and more specifically, to hand-held self-defense devices that squirt a stream or spray of noxious fluid at a potential assailant. The invention includes a rigid section and a flexible section which protect and enclose the noxious fluid, and is configured to maximize comfort and intuitiveness of hand-held use while minimizing the probability of accidental ejection of the fluid.
Self-defense devices cover a wide range of threatening situations and are, by manufacture, individually suited to cover various sectors within a parameter space defined by axes such as lethality, level of user training, size and portability, ease of concealment, safety, accuracy and range of fire, ammunition storage capacity, and others. This specialization makes some devices more suitable for professional security personnel and others more suitable for personal use by civilians. The category of self-defense devices for personal use is characterized by low levels of lethality and requisite user training, small size and easy concealment, high safety levels, and poor-to-medium accuracy and range of fire. In addition, the possibility of facile one-handed operation is a definite advantage for such a device.
While the prior art discloses solutions that optimize certain combinations of the above parameters, no one solution is specifically configured to optimize all parameters necessary for personal self-defense use by civilians, as is evident from the following exemplary prior art devices.
One self-defense device is a mace spray canister, which offers the potential victim a way of disabling a potential assailant. However, available personal-use aerosol mace devices have very low accuracy and range of fire, and are difficult to operate with one hand. In addition, the pressurized contents are hazardous, particularly during air travel, and also pose disposal hazards at the end of the product life cycle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,219,096 to Wing discloses a squirt gun in handgun form in which the projection force and fluid storage are combined in a collapsible bulb forming the butt of the pistol. In addition to the disadvantage of gun-like appearance, this design leaves the compressible portion of the mechanism exposed to external pressure and thus susceptible to accidental operation. In addition, operation of the device is awkward and requires at least two hands to release the safety, aim the device and squeeze the flexible bulb.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,087,481 to Foster discloses a toy gun for firing lightweight balls, or alternatively, a fluid, when the flexible butt portion of the gun is squeezed. This device also suffers from the disadvantage of gun-like appearance. Also, the flexible container protrudes from the body of the device and is thus exposed to external pressure from nearly every direction. While not detrimental to its use as a toy, these aspects reduce the safety and ease of concealment necessary for use as a self-defense device.
While the overall size of a personal civilian self-defense device must be relatively small, the section of the device containing the active ammunition should be as capacious as possible within this constraint. Many of the devices disclosed in the above patents do not provide enough capacity for repeated discharges of the device as necessary to repel an assailant, particularly in situations in which the initial discharge misses the mark, or in situations in which several assailants are present.
Outside of the realm of devices specifically designed for self-defense purposes, there are a number of devices for containing and dispensing fluids that, upon first glance, seem to be adaptable to a defense use when filled with a sufficiently noxious substance. A closer look at these spray bottles reveals them to be ill-adapted to the operational needs of a portable civilian self-defense device:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,255,933 to Martin discloses a dispensing container with bellows, composed of rigid and flexible parts such that the compression of the bellows section provides a predictable and constant amount of pressurization of the contents of the container. While useful for dispensing cleaning fluids or condiments, the device in U.S. Pat. No. 3,255,933 cannot be trivially adapted to effective and comfortable use as a self-defense device due to inherent flaws in safety and ease of use. The bottle is ill-adapted to one-handed use, and when the bellows is compressed, the bottle is likely to fall from the user's grasp. In addition, the orifice of ejection of the contents is rotatable upon a screw threaded connection, such that at the time of firing it may not be facing in the expected direction. No safety device prevents accidental leakage of the contents through the cap described.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,024,992 to Schmid discloses an air atomizer bottle sprayer having a screw cap. As with U.S. Pat. No. 3,255,933, the device in U.S. Pat. No. 4,024,992 cannot be trivially adapted to self-defense use without severe compromises in safety and ease of use. While the finger contours make the direction of spray more clear, the rotary screw thread attachment introduces the possibility that the contents will be ejected in the wrong direction at the crucial moment. In addition, the entire container component is flexible and exposed, increasing the probability of accidental pressurizing of the contents. No safety mechanism for protecting against accidental discharge is provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,060 to Kersten, et al., discloses a pack for free-flowing filler of a fluid or powdered nature. As in the previously cited prior art, the device in U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,060 is more suited to dispensing a harmless substance in circumstances where reaction time and accuracy are not crucial. The overall shape is cylindrical, leading to confusion as to the direction of spray. Significantly, the safety release requires twisting the two sections of the cylinder in opposite directions, a decidedly two-handed operation.
Thus, there is a clear need for, and it would be quite advantageous to have, a fluid-ejecting self-defense device that overcomes the drawbacks of known self-defense and fluid dispensing devices, and is uniquely adapted to the operational parameters of personal civilian self-defense, specifically, low levels of lethality and user training, small size and ease of concealment, very high safety levels, and reasonable accuracy and range of fire. It would be of further advantage for the operation of such a device to be intuitive, easy, and preferably one-handed, even under stress.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a self-defense device that ejects an aimed stream or spray of fluid. The device is designed and constructed to be extremely safe to carry and use, intuitively comfortable in fitting the user's hand, capable of forcibly ejecting a significant amount of noxious fluid to a target at a range of 12 to 16 feet, and well-protected against accidental discharge. The device of the present invention uses a minimum number of parts to achieve these design goal, and these parts are specifically configured to overcome the problems of clumsiness, uncertainty of direction of aim, lack of safety, short range, low amount of stored fluid, and suspicious gun-like appearance evidenced in the prior art.
The entire volume of the device is used for storage of the active repellant fluid, providing maximum ammunition in a volume determined by comfortable fit in a relatively small hand. This is an improvement over various devices in the prior art that often sacrifice a significant part of this potential volume for propellant, or are simply not configured as a single convex chamber. Since the chamber is completely filled with active fluid at manufacture, the discharge action is essentially 100% efficient when the device is discharged for the first time. In this initial and most crucial discharge of the device, the pressure produced by squeezing the flexible section of the chamber acts directly on an incompressible fluid without an int
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