Chairs and seats – Detachable supplemental flexible pad or cover – One-piece bottom and back
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-03
2003-12-02
Cuomo, Peter M. (Department: 3636)
Chairs and seats
Detachable supplemental flexible pad or cover
One-piece bottom and back
C297S184110, C160S024000, C160S305000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06655736
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to providing upholstery protection to seats, and more particularly, to a temporary storeable seat cover that utilizes a spring roller mechanism for convenient storage in a discrete housing that lends itself to aftermarket use.
Automotive seats are used to transport a wide variety of items including humans, pets, household items, groceries, etc. from one place to another. In doing so, these items inevitably carry a variety of contaminants in solid, liquid and microbiological form which can be transferred from the transported person or item to the surface of the seat. This contamination contributes to a variety of unwanted side effects which include odor, upholstery discoloration, stains, dampness and bacterial contamination. These side effects can lead to decreased car value, increased propensity for colds, and embarrassment for the car owner if significant contamination occurs over time. Because automotive seats can be expensive and make up a highly visible component of the overall vehicle, automobile owners have a vested interest in preserving the natural aesthetic beauty of the original seat. Most owners will tend to avoid covering the surface on a permanent basis due to a preference towards the aesthetic appeal of the original upholstery.
As an example of the need to provide a temporary seat cover, people involved in heavy exercise are frequently faced with the need to enter their car with perspiration soaked clothing, thus contaminating the surface of the seat with high doses of moisture from sweat which can lead to bacteria build up, odor and even staining of the upholstery over a prolonged period of time. Some people attempt to partially protect the upholstery surface with a clean or used towel which tends to cover only part of the surface, while others simply allow their sweat to be absorbed into the exposed upholstery. Use of a towel can be cumbersome to apply since towels do not carry an anchoring mechanism, and may be inconvenient and not practical due to the difficulty in storing a towel in an aesthetically appealing manner within the limited space of an automobile interior.
Also, following visits to the beach, individuals or families frequently find themselves returning to their vehicles with wet clothing and sand filled towels. These vehicle owners must face the challenge of driving and transporting passengers without soaking the seats or soiling them with sand. Many times, there are attempts to use recently used beach towels for protection, however these may be soiled or wet themselves in many cases, causing similar levels of contamination. Frequently, vehicle owners have no alternative but to allow their valuable upholstery to become soaked with moisture and sand.
There are a number of professions which cause a person to arrive at work in clean clothing and return from work with soiled apparel. Mechanics, farmers, professional athletes, construction workers and some blue collar professions are prone to this. These individuals can carry a wide range of grease, dirt and other contaminants which can leave a visible stain on their vehicle upholstery. Without using a temporary means of protection, the owner will continually leave increased levels of stains to the vehicle.
In hot weather climates, vehicle owners frequently must temporarily leave their vehicles in direct sunlight while accomplishing routine errands. After a prolonged period of time, the interior of the vehicle can become extremely hot to the point of discomfort. One of the hottest surfaces, particularly in dark interior vehicles, is the seat. Prolonged exposure to intense heat can cause damage to upholstery. Even worse, extreme heat levels can cause a passenger to get burned by the heated upholstery, particularly if wearing shorts that expose the skin to direct contact with the scorching fabric. Temporarily covering a dark seat with a light heat defracting fabric will allow a vehicle owner to remove the protective covering upon return to the vehicle and diminish the heat level that comes in contact with the driver or passenger. Pet owners who bring their pet along on periodic trips will tend to accumulate pet hair on upholstery over time which will have the propensity to get re-transferred onto a human passenger's clothing in the future. Pet odors also can get trapped within the upholstery causing unwanted odors for passengers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,922 to Meritis proposes the use of the headrest as the storage mechanism for the seat cover. This concept limits the amount of fabric available for use to the width of the headrest, which is usually too narrow of a surface area to provide adequate protection to the exposed area of the seat. U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,238 to Goodford, U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,592 to Busso et al., and Meritis disclose factory installing the seat cover system. Although OEM applications offer some validity, they do not offer help to current car owners who may be in need of an after-market solution. Furthermore, it is uncertain whether vehicle manufacturers will be willing or able to apply similar OEM concepts across the wide breadth of available vehicles.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,985,222 to Menhall, U.S. Pat. No. 4,118,066 to Ricke and U.S. Pat. No. 2,804,914 to Butcko et al. suggest installation of an apparatus under the seat of a vehicle. Since automotive seat configurations vary so widely from manufacturer to manufacturer, it is unlikely that a single sized and shaped unit that is securely attached to a vehicles seat can be able to fit under the seat of a wide range of vehicles. Also, it is likely that installation under the seat would be either highly visible or interfere with the OEM mechanism for seat adjustment. Therefore, these temporary surface protection devices used as an aftermarket option, do not allow for universal fitting across a wide breadth of vehicles
U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,376 to Keiswetter discloses utilization of a temporary cover that is intended for limited use and does not allow the user to re-store the cover temporarily for re-use. However, many vehicle owners will not find it convenient to carry and dispose of used covers on a frequent basis. For vehicle owners who need to apply temporary protection with great frequency, such as users with a regular exercise routine, they would find the need to discard a temporary seat cover cumbersome and may choose to abandon its usage.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,089,659 to Toyota has suggested the use of the headrest to secure the seat cover, but has not offered a temporary solution with discrete storability during non-use. Toyota discloses that the seat cover be attached to mounting bars of a headrest. However, mounting bars do not exist in all vehicles. U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,925 to Hanley has also suggested the use of the head rest as an anchor but has not provided the vehicle owner with a quick, clean method of collecting the material for temporary storage. Instead, a user is required to manually collect the protective seat cover for storage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,828 to Asfaw discloses a seat cover having a housing for containing a retractable roll of material. However, the housing is positioned between a back seat cushion and a bottom seat cushion and the fabric only extends to cover the bottom seat cushion.
Thus, there is an unmet need in the marketplace to provide a satisfactory form of short term protection to automotive seat upholstery
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A retractable seat cover for providing temporary protection to a seat having a top portion includes a housing having a first end, a second end, and a longitudinal slit therebetween. A retraction mechanism is positioned within the housing and is rotatably attached to the housing. A piece of fabric has a top portion and a lower portion, the lower portion being attached to the retraction mechanism, and the top portion extending through the slit of the housing as the fabric is withdrawn from the housing during use of the retractable seat cover and retracting back through the slit when the retraction mechanism is activated to roll t
Addessi Aileen Champion
Cuomo Peter M.
D'Adamo Stephen
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