Apparel – Nether garments – Stockings
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-16
2001-12-04
Calvert, John J. (Department: 3741)
Apparel
Nether garments
Stockings
C002S409000, C002S408000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06324699
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Women wear pantyhose for various reasons: warmth, support, tummy control, body contouring and/or a sleeker, slimmer image.
To acquire the slimmest and most supporting look women wear pantyhose which are as tight as possible. Due to the “tightness” of the fit, pantyhose are difficult to initially put on and take off at the end of the day. During the day, the woman wearing the pantyhose must presumably urinate. This is made difficult because conventional pantyhose are unitary, having no openings. In order to urinate, the woman wearing the pantyhose must struggle to carefully inch the pantyhose down to her ankles before sitting on a toilet to urinate, risking a snag, a run or even a broken nail. Additionally, the inching down process takes time. Having urinated the woman must inch the pantyhose up to their original position. Women do this not just once a day, but many times a day. In hot humid weather, this task is even more troublesome. The hosiery adheres tightly to the skin of the user, making the inching up and down difficult and time-consuming.
Undergarments having openings in the crotch area covered by one or more flaps in order to facilitate urination without lowering the undergannent are known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,304 discloses a pantyhose undergarment particularly suited to men which has overlapping flaps which may be separated in order to facilitate urination in the front portion of a torso section of the undergarment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,212 discloses a pantyhose undergarment for women which discloses a panty shield positioned in the crotch area of the wearer in order to wick moisture away from the skin during the garment's wear.
Several undergarments other than pantyhose such as girdles have been modified so as to facilitate urination without needing to lower the undergarment.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,279,469 and 3,974,836 disclose undergarments such as girdles having a crotch opening and a flap adapted to cover the opening, the flap being secured to the rear of the undergarment and removably secured to the front of the undergarment such that the wearer of the undergarment may lower the flap for urination purposes. Because the flaps disclosed in these patents hang downwardly from the rear of the crotch opening during urination, it is possible that these flaps may be urinated on or may fall into the fluid inside the toilet.
Therefore, it has been one objective of the present invention to provide an undergarment having a crotch opening and improved flap not subject to such wetting.
It has been a further objective of the present invention to provide a pantyhose undergarment having a crotch opening covered by a flap which may easily be maintained in a position in which it will not be wetted.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention of this application which accomplishes these objectives comprises a pantyhose undergarment having an opening in a crotch area of the pantyhose undergarment between a pair of leg portions of the pantyhose undergarment. A flap is permanently secured to an area of the undergarment at the front of the opening and releasably at the rear of the opening. In this way, the flap can be opened forwardly and grasped by a user who holds it up and out of the way until it is to be reattached. It is thus not free to dangle in a position where it can be wetted. The specific design of the pantyhose undergarment of the present invention facilitates urination by a wearer. The wearer may urinate without having to lower the pantyhose undergarment.
In more detail, the pantyhose undergarment comprises a pair of leg portions and a torso portion above the leg portions, as is conventional with pantyhose. However, the pantyhose undergarment of the present invention has an opening in a crotch area of the pantyhose undergarment.
A crotch flap is permanently secured along a front peripheral portion of the crotch flap to the pantyhose undergarment proximate the opening in the pantyhose undergarment. The crotch flap is removably secured around side and rear peripheral portions of the crotch flap to the pantyhose undergarment with spaced fastener areas. A front peripheral portion of the crotch flap is glued, welded or otherwise permanently secured along a horizontal securement line to a front torso portion of the pantyhose undergarment such that the crotch flap may be held against the lower abdomen of the wearer when urinating.
Although the crotch flap is preferably oval shaped, the crotch flap may be any configuration. The crotch flap may be any size or shape depending upon the size or shape of the opening in the pantyhose undergarment which is removably covered by the crotch flap.
To facilitate urination a user unfastens the fasteners by pulling the crotch flap forwardly between the leg portions of the pantyhose undergarment. Once in front of the wearer the crotch flap may be held against the lower abdomen of the wearer in a position in which the crotch flap will not be urinated upon or fall into the fluid within a toilet.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention of this application will become more readily apparent from the following description of the drawings.
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Calvert John J.
Hoey Alissa L.
Wood Herron & Evans L.L.P.
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