Receptacles – Container attachment or adjunct – Handle – handle component – or handle adjunct
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-27
2001-04-10
Pollard, Steven (Department: 3727)
Receptacles
Container attachment or adjunct
Handle, handle component, or handle adjunct
C220S770000, C220S775000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06213340
ABSTRACT:
This invention pertains to the area of ice buckets or receptacles for bottles or carafes, such as champagne buckets, which comprise walls and are able to receive a means of marking the bucket, for example a label.
This invention pertains to an ice bucket or receptacle for bottles or carafes, and in particular a champagne bucket, that comprises walls and at least one area that is specially designed to be able to receive a means of marking the bucket.
Ice buckets for bottles or carafes are well known and widely used to display bottles of wine and to keep them at proper serving temperature, either for bottles of white wine or sparkling wine or bottles of champagne, for example.
The ice buckets that are currently known are generally made of metal, such as stainless steel or aluminum, and come in the form of receptacles of various shapes, generally like a cylinder or truncated cone, to hold the bottle to be cooled and the volume of ice required to ensure the cooling function.
The known buckets comprise walls and a means of gripping, which generally consists of a pair of handles that are attached by known and conventional means to the walls, by screwing, riveting, soldering, or even by gluing.
Since these are articles that are mainly to be used on occasions of a festive nature, particularly in the case of champagne buckets, the majority of champagne buckets are equipped with means of marking the bucket that display an inscription and/or a design or a logo that is intended to personalize the bucket and to impart to it an additional aesthetic quality, which may optionally be related to or associated with the kind and brand of bottle to be cooled.
According to a first technique, it is known to affix the marking means directly to the walls of the ice bucket by the classic technique of engraving. Said technique requires special tools and can be executed only at the sites where the buckets are manufactured. Use of the technique of direct engraving thus requires a considerable investment in engraving equipment since the operation itself has to be integrated into the actual manufacturing process.
Overall, these techniques thus prove to be relatively costly in terms of both equipment and time. Moreover, the fact that it is necessary to carry out the marking operation right at the location where the device is manufactured makes it impossible to retain the option of personalizing the ice bucket according to the flow of orders or based on specific customer requirements since this operation has to be integrated into the manufacturing process.
It is also already known to make use of indirect marking techniques including, in particular, the technique of silkscreen printing, whereby said techniques consist of attaching by, for example, gluing a marking means such as a label directly to the ice bucket. This is known from, for example, documents FR-2 639 530 and US-A-4 534 391. This kind of technique may also require the use of special tools owing, in particular, to the need to ensure the preparation of the surface of the area to which the label is to be affixed. Most of the time, the preparation of the surface is done by creating, by simply molding the surface, a specially designed area in the wall of the bucket so that it is able to receive a marking label.
In addition to the need to use specific tools, the drawbacks of this kind of indirect marking technique lie in the proper behavior of the label which, over the long term, may tend to peel and/or become deformed. With respect to decorative-type labels that are intended to improve the appearance of the ice bucket or at least to coordinate with it, the use of this kind of technique proves to be less than appropriate to the goal here. In addition, as in the case of direct marking techniques, the affixing of an external label must necessarily be done at the locations of manufacture and consequently cannot be adapted to the evolving requirements as regards the personalization of the bucket and responsiveness to the constraints of orders or the need to rotate stocks.
The object of this invention is therefore to propose an approach to the marking of a ice bucket that does not have the drawbacks mentioned above and makes it possible to obtain an ice bucket that is able to receive a means of marking the bucket by means of an operation that is especially easy to carry out, does not require any particular investment, tends to enhance the appearance of the bucket, and promotes aesthetic harmony with the bottle to be cooled.
Another object of the invention is to propose a new ice bucket in which the operation of attaching the marking means is carried out in a particularly quick way without using specific tools and does not need to be executed at the location where the bucket is manufactured.
Another object of the invention is to propose a means of marking the bucket that is able to reduce and/or eliminate defects of manufacture or installation that may develop during the creation of the bucket.
Another object of the invention is to propose a new ice bucket in which the marking means is attached to the bucket in a particularly secure way and is not likely to deform or change over time or as the bucket undergoes usage.
Another object of the invention is to propose a new use for a bottle plug cap, and especially a champagne bottle plug cap.
The objects at which the invention is aimed are achieved by means of an ice bucket for bottles or carafes, especially a champagne bucket, that comprises walls and at least one area that is especially designed to be able to receive a means of marking the bucket, whereby said area is formed by a housing, which is characterized in that the marking means is formed by an essentially flat part and has a certain degree of rigidity so that it can be attached in or to the housing and can cover up at least its bottom.
The objects at which the invention is aimed are also achieved by means of a champagne bottle plug cap that is designed to be attached to an ice bucket according to the invention.
REFERENCES:
patent: 631845 (1899-08-01), Butter et al.
patent: 670618 (1901-03-01), Lewis
patent: 746733 (1903-12-01), McDonald
patent: 1728257 (1929-09-01), Seigh
patent: 2009680 (1935-07-01), Rollason
patent: 2604579 (1952-07-01), Deneboudes
patent: 4534391 (1985-08-01), Ventimiglia et al.
patent: 2 639 530 (1990-01-01), None
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
Pollard Steven
Seb S.A.
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