Plant husbandry – Ornamental beds
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-14
2001-09-25
Jordan, Charles T. (Department: 3643)
Plant husbandry
Ornamental beds
Reexamination Certificate
active
06293046
ABSTRACT:
The present invention is directed to landscape edging, and is particularly suitable for the use of landscape edging shipped in discrete sections.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The landscape edging to separate different portions of a lawn or garden, in general, has been known for many years. Various pre-fabricated borders have been disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 113,145 entitled Garden Bed Border issued in 1871 for Tongue and Groove Garden Border sections formed of brick, concrete or artificial stone, with provisions for flower pots between the sections. U.S. Pat. No. 761,979 discloses a mound border useful for graves.
More recently, various types of landscape edging have been disclosed which incorporate lighting fixtures and water sprinklers within the structure of the landscape edging. For example, landscape edging including one or more of these features are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,495,352 to Sbare, U.S. Pat. No. 3,491,660 to Kwasney, U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,675 to Kendrick, U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,877 to Lindhal and U.S. Pat. No. 5,675,930 to Cooper. The edging in these various patents generally comprise multiple parts which are costly to manufacture and therefore, ultimately costly to the consumer. These various sections do not lend themselves to formation as a single extrusion.
More recently, various forms of landscape edging have been formed by extrusion. Those skilled in the art appreciate that it is less expensive to form sections of lawn edging by extrusion processes than to mold individual sections or to assemble many pieces to form a single border section as required by various borders shown in the patents references above. Extruded landscape edging sections have been shipped as twenty foot coils or in shorter, e.g. four to six foot, sections. One advantage of the use of shorter straight sections is that they take up less space during shipping and when on display at a retail store. The use of several shorter sections to form a twenty foot section of border, however, creates a number of “seams” at the juncture of two adjacent edge sections. As used herein, the term “seams” is used to indicate a visible discontinuity in the assembled lawn edging between two adjacent sections. Therefore, a “seam” will be created by the abutment of two adjacent sections, if the sections are not actually abutting, if the edges of adjacent border sections are overlapping, etc.
The existence of a greater number of visible seams is undesirable to some consumers. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide lawn edging which has the portability of shorter edge sections, but which does not have many visible seams.
Another disadvantage of the previously disclosed systems was that, to a large extent, their designs were set by the manufacture. Some consumers, however, prefer to be able to add their own touches of creativity to their landscape edging. Therefore, it would also be desirable to provide decorative elements which are selectively positionable on a lawn edging.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to landscape edging comprising a plurality of elongated border sections each having end portions which are disposed proximate to each other, and, a cover disposed over the top of a seam created by adjacent border sections.
According to another aspect of the present invention, one, and preferably a plurality of, decorative elements are movably positionable along a visible portion of landscape edging. According to this embodiment, end users of this landscape edging, whether landscapers or consumers, can create their own decorative design.
REFERENCES:
patent: 113145 (1871-03-01), Dickson et al.
patent: 761979 (1904-06-01), Moylan
patent: 3491660 (1970-01-01), Kwasney
patent: 3495352 (1970-02-01), Sbare
patent: 3788001 (1974-01-01), Balfanz, Jr.
patent: 4858379 (1989-08-01), West
patent: 4945675 (1990-08-01), Kendrick
patent: 5067273 (1991-11-01), Richwine
patent: 5442877 (1995-08-01), Lindhal
patent: 5675930 (1997-10-01), Cooper
patent: 5715628 (1998-02-01), Beladakis
patent: 5720128 (1998-02-01), Smith et al.
Meglino Don A.
Meglino James V.
Galgano & Burke
Jakel Kevin
Jordan Charles T.
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