Card – picture – or sign exhibiting – Signs – Automotive vehicle carried
Reexamination Certificate
2002-12-31
2004-09-28
Le, Mark T. (Department: 3617)
Card, picture, or sign exhibiting
Signs
Automotive vehicle carried
C040S218000, C040S666000, C116S051000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06796063
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mountable decorative accessories for motor vehicles that are equipped with a luggage rack.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Flags have become one of the most popular automobile accessories on the market. Flags representing everything from sports teams to national allegiance have been produced. The most common mounting designs are to attach these flags to the hoods of cars or the edge of windows. The mounting of flags on hoods is dangerous since it may obstruct the drivers view. It also limits visibility to the side of the vehicle where the flag is located. The designs for windows have several drawbacks. They may prevent the opening of windows where the flag is mounted. They also are mounted close to the body of the vehicle risking damage to the surface.
In addition to displaying flags for decorative purposes, they may also serve a function. If they are displayed high enough, the vehicle owner will be assisted in identifying his vehicle in a crowded parking lot. It would therefore be desirable to mount the flag in as high a position as possible in order to increase the flag's visibility. An extremely popular feature on vehicles is a luggage rack. These generally consist of rails mounted on the top of the vehicle with cross members attached at either end to these rails. The rails hold these cross members remote from the vehicle body. Thus if a flag is mounted to the cross members it would be at the highest, most visible point of the vehicle. Furthermore it would be entirely out of the view of the driver, eliminating in safety hazard. The gap between the cross members and the body of the vehicle would prevent any body damage. The flag should be mounted in such a way that it will be erect when the vehicle is being driven, but will lay flat when the vehicle enters a garage so that it will clear the door and roof.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,540406 to Carl J. Dexter is a design for a flag that may be mounted to the roof of a vehicle. The drawback for this mounting system is that it is mounted directly to the roof of the vehicle. This greatly increases the risk of damage to the paint on the surface. The Dexter '406 patent does have a mechanism for retracting the flag, but this design incorporates no base upon which the flag may rest when the flag is retracted. Thus the pole will vibrate and scrape the surface of the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,883 to Ivan V. Steed and Jeffrey I. Gill, U.S. Pat. No. 5,233,938 to Abraham Lalo, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,010,107 to Abraham Goldfarb are all examples of devices that mount a flag to the window of a vehicle. All of these designs employ a mount that is braced by a hooking mechanism over the window. These designs have a variety of drawbacks. Typically the driver of a car will not want to lower the window while the flag is mounted since it will produce loud noise and may be a dangerous distraction. The mounting of flags in this fashion also risks damage to the surface of the vehicle. None of these designs employ an automatic mechanism for lowering the flag when entering garages.
The device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,687 to Morgan Chester is for mounting flags to luggage racks. It however uses a bolt tightened clamping mechanism for attaching the flag base to the cross member of the luggage rack while the present invention uses an easier clip-on mechanism. This bolt tightened design of the Chester '687 patent has many sharp edges while the present invention forms one smooth unit. Thus the risk of damage to the vehicle is reduced. There is no element disclosed in the Chester design that would allow for the lowering of the flag without entirely removing the flag from the vehicle. This makes the Chester design far less practical since vehicles commonly must enter garages and tunnels that would have clearances too low for a flag mounted on the roof to pass.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 359, 924 to Victor N. Grumbeck discloses a flag mounted on a pole that may be telescopically raised or lowered. The design is for a device that is to be mounted to a window and thus has the same drawbacks of the patents discussed earlier. While the telescopic pole will allow the user to lower the flag it will still protrude upward and create an obstruction.
Therefore a need exists for a novel and enhanced method for mounting a flag to the cross member of a luggage rack while providing a convenient retraction mechanism to lower the flag when entering a garage. This device should be reusable and durable. This device should create no damage to the vehicle. In this respect, the luggage rack flag mount according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of mounting retractable flags to the cross members of luggage racks.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of mechanisms for mounting flags on automobiles now present in the prior art, the present invention provides an improved combination of convenience and utility, and overcomes the abovementioned disadvantages and drawbacks of the prior art. As such, the general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a new and improved luggage rack flag mount which has all of the advantages of the prior art mentioned heretofore and many novel features that result in a luggage rack flag mount which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by the prior art, either alone or in combination thereof.
In furtherance of this objective, the luggage rack flag mount comprises a clamp that comprises a pair of U-shaped hooks. The distance between these hooks may be adjusted so that the hooks will rest snuggly about the cross member of a luggage rack. Attached to said clamp is a mount which comprises a brace. Seated within said brace is a flag pole to which may be attached a flag.
There has been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated.
The present invention may in addition comprise a hinge attached to said clamp and said mount so that said flag pole may rest atop said clamp in a retracted position. Said flag may be raised to a right angle with said clamp when in an upright position.
An additional aspect of present invention is that the distance between said U-shaped hooks is adjusted by a saw tooth interlocking joint wherein one of said u-shaped hooks comprises a series of triangular teeth that may be inserted within a groove in the upper portion of said clamp. Said groove further comprises a series of triangular teeth that interlock with said teeth on said first u-shaped member. Thus the user may insert said u-shaped member until both of said u-shaped members are snuggly clamped on said luggage rack cross member and the interlocking teeth will maintain the appropriate distance.
Said brace for said flagpole may comprise a plurality of rectangular members, the middle of which are curved to match the diameter of said flagpole. The ends of said members are attached to said mount and said flagpole is held between said curved portion and the surface of said mount.
Numerous objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description of presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiments of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In this respect, before explaining the current embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is
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