Fishing – trapping – and vermin destroying – Decoys
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-10
2001-04-17
Poon, Peter M. (Department: 3643)
Fishing, trapping, and vermin destroying
Decoys
C446S487000, C248S533000, C248S156000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06216382
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to hunting decoys of the type having flexible molded hollow bodies that hold a three dimensional shape, but are collapsible to flatten, fold or similarly compress the body for compact storage or transport. According to the invention an internal support or spacer is provided to positively open the collapsible body. The support is optionally associated with a vertical post that visually approximates a leg and has one or more outward surfaces that can be caused to bear against the walls of the hollow decoy body from the inside.
The support is configured to reside compactly between the opposite sides of the hollow body when the body is collapsed. For example the support can be wide and flat, and turned 90° between a collapsed and expanded state of the decoy body. Alternatively the support can be movably collapsible and expandable. In the expanded state the support provides a lateral spacing structure that is at least partly complementary to the internal dimensions of the expanded body.
2. Prior Art
Decoys are known in various shapes and colors to resemble specific animals, a familiar example being game birds. Decoys may represent male or female animals. The decoys may be attractive to the corresponding species of game animal or to a different species, for example due to herding, flocking or similar safety-in-numbers instincts, or due to an instinctive belief that if other animals are safely occupying a particular location, that the location must be relatively safe or may contain food or some other advantage which the earlier arriving animals have discovered. In some instances and perhaps at certain seasons, gender specific decoys attract animals of the opposite gender due to interest in potential mates. Gender specific decoys may attract animals of the same gender, especially in the case of territorially exclusive animals that will approach a decoy in the interest of driving competing animals away. Decoys may be attractive if they represent a usual prey species of a predatory animal. Conversely, a “decoy” that represents a predator species may be desirable to discourage the presence of a particular prey species, as with a scarecrow. In the usual case, a decoy is intended to resemble a particular species as accurately and completely as possible. In other cases it is sufficient if the decoy simply has critical attributes in common with the particular species, such as a comparable silhouette, color, movement, sound, odor, etc.
The present invention is applicable generally to visual decoys that are intended to approximate a particular appearance, and in a preferred embodiment also to effect minimal motion. The decoys may represent any species and/or gender to which animals are instinctively responsive. A particularly demanding subject as well as a good demonstrative example is the American wild turkey. The turkey is a relatively intelligent animal and has acute senses. Turkeys are suspicious and wary. Male turkeys are territorial and turkeys of the either gender may approach others of like gender to establish dominance in the so-called pecking order. Turkeys can fly a reasonable distance and thus can very quickly move about in response to situations. Although the turkey is a good example of the aspects of the present invention, it should be appreciated that the invention is also applicable to other particular species, to animals frequenting dry or wet lands, to mammals as well as birds, etc.
Effective decoys for turkeys and similar animals are preferably realistic in appearance, especially from a distance. In order to be practical for the hunter, the decoys must be deployed in the environs in which wild turkeys can be found, sufficiently quickly that the hunter can conceal himself before discovery, and in situations that the turkeys find attractive. Unlike water fowl, which predictably seek out and occupy particular open watercourses along a flyway, turkeys move about and roost unpredictably. A turkey hunter is not likely to be successful simply by selecting a location that seems likely to be visited by turkeys because of certain aspects of cover and perhaps available food. Although such a site selection is helpful, turkeys are not as predictable, for example, as ducks and some other game animals regarding their chosen surroundings. Accordingly, the turkey hunter typically will check several potential hunting locations having cover or food availability that may be appealing to turkeys, or locations where turkeys have been previously observed, while watching and listening for turkey calls. The hunter may wish to try active steps such as imitating turkey calls at these locations and hopefully to invoke a response that reveals the presence of a bird. Advantageously, the hunter would prefer to investigate a location in this manner before expending the time and trouble of erecting decoys, and perhaps risking inadvertent suspicious noise that could scare a turkey off.
In short, the hunter typically does not deploy decoys at a chosen location and then sit and wait. It is more efficient for the hunter to move quietly and to watch and listen, perhaps imitating calls, until one or more turkeys is detected nearby, e.g., by answering the hunter's imitation call. According to this scenario, the hunter has little time to place the decoys. The decoys must be erected when a turkey is nearby and possibly in range to detect inadvertent sounds. And to maximize the chance of success, the hunter would prefer to spend time imitating audible turkey calls instead of setting up decoys.
This general hunting procedure of stalking and investigating by imitating calls, followed by deployment of decoys, puts demands on the hunter and on the decoys. The decoys must be lightweight and compact to be easily transported by the hunter to a site where turkeys are found. To avoid detection by the wary game, the decoys need to be deployed as quickly and as quietly as possible. Interests in transportability and speed or ease of deployment can be met in some ways that detract from the extent to which the decoys realistically depict the animal. For example, the decoys could be flat silhouettes rather than more realistic three dimensional forms. Thus there are competing interests to be addressed.
A known type of three dimensional decoy that can be collapsed for transport and expanded into a stable shape resembling a game animal, comprises a hollow body of flexible molded plastic foam. Such hollow molded decoys resembling turkeys are available, for example, from Feather Flex Decoys, Division of Outland Sports, Inc., 4500 Doniphan Drive, Neosho, Mo. 64850. A hollow foamed plastic decoy is lighter and more transportable than the solid decoy that is typical of floating waterfowl decoys.
The Feather Flex turkey decoy is made of thin sheet segments of molded foam plastic. The segments define molded three dimensional shapes representing surface portions of the animal, generally outwardly convex shapes, bonded together to form the external dimensions of the decoy. This type of decoy is realistic in its gross external shape (and thus its silhouette), and also in finer attributes of surface configuration and color, which are molded into and painted onto the foam plastic sheet material. For a turkey these details include representations of the wings, tail, body and flight feathers, eyes, beak, etc.
The molded foam plastic material is lightweight and inexpensive. The Feather Flex decoy is molded in two lateral halves abutting along a central longitudinal plane. Each half is a generally bowl-shaped mirror image of the other half of the three dimensional bird form. Thus the halves divide the decoy along a longitudinal vertical midplane. The foamed plastic is approximately 0.3 cm thick, subject to the variations in thickness that represent surface features.
Although the foamed plastic is sheetlike, it tends to hold the external shape of the bird because the convexly curved surfaces are stable. The halves are joined together adhesively or by heat bonding along t
Bergin James S.
Duane Morris & Heckscher LLP
Poon Peter M.
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