Patents Examined by William Pierce
  • Patent number: 8763521
    Abstract: An apparatus and method that maintains an optional heated environment in addition to a humid environment in an interior thereof such that one or more edible items may be stored therein with properties of the one or more edible items maintained in a desirable state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Inventor: David Bois
  • Patent number: 8757620
    Abstract: Teaching aid math games utilizing a mathematical matrix organized about x and y axises where the game is played by correctly associating numbers with their corresponding stations. The matrix comprises a first string of stations and a second string of stations where the first and second strings have the same number of stations. Each station is associated with a numerical value, and each station on the first string is parallel to a corresponding station on the second string where each corresponding station pair add up to the same numerical value. The display of the matrix provides visual associations for mathematical relationships.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Inventors: Todd Glenn Buchholz, Victoria Jacqueline Buchholz, Katherine Sabrina Buchholz, Alexia Grace Buchholz
  • Patent number: 8757622
    Abstract: A bingo table game includes a table with a playing surface that evokes the appearance of a table for playing craps. Players grouped around the table purchase bingo cards by placing chips in designated regions of the playing surface. Both a Primary Bingo Game card and Interim Bingo Game cards can be purchased or activated by placing chips in their corresponding regions. Cube-shaped bingo balls are randomly selected and rolled onto the playing surface by a blower mechanism to imitate a dice roll. The bingo indicium on each bingo ball is called out as it completes its roll. Players daub any indicia on their bingo cards that match the indicium on the ball. Interim games can be won on each “roll” of a bingo ball by a single match and daub, and payouts for that interim game can be paid to winning players after each roll.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: innovate! Technologies Group, LLC
    Inventor: Troy Robin King
  • Patent number: 8752838
    Abstract: A video bingo poker game comprising: providing each player with an individual flashboard, each flashboard having an equal number of spaces, each space defined by a column label and a space number, wherein the space number is randomly selected from a predefined number range for each column; providing a plurality of bingo balls, wherein each bingo ball has markings associated with one of the plurality of spaces; randomly selecting a first group of bingo balls; displaying to each player the markings associated with each selected bingo ball of the first group of bingo balls; marking each square associated with each of the first group of bingo balls on each individual flashcard; and determining any winning flashboard.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2014
    Assignee: MPBingo LLC
    Inventors: Gary Weingardt, Gamin Weingardt, Gary Lee Loebig
  • Patent number: 8746698
    Abstract: A casino chip organizer/pusher has a chip receiving portion and a handle secured to a lower end of the chip receiving portion. The chip-receiving portion is formed by a U-shaped fixed member affixed to the handle and an optional detachable U-shaped member that can be slidably engaged with the fixed member. When stacks of chips are positioned inside the chip receiving portion they can be transferred along the gaming table without tumbling.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2014
    Inventor: Morris Wendling
  • Patent number: 8747233
    Abstract: A grip attachment with LED light or optional mirror adapted for attaching to one end of an expandable baton. The end of the baton has threads thereon. The grip attachment includes a grip body with a hand grip surface. The grip body having a center hole therethrough for receipt around the threaded end of the expandable baton. The grip body also includes an annular ring or tabs disposed around an inside circumference of the center hole. The grip attachment is secured on the expandable baton between the threaded end of the baton and an end cap. The grip attachment with LED light is attached to the baton by removing the end cap, sliding the grip attachment with LED light onto the threaded end of the baton, and screwing the end cap back on the threaded end.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2014
    Inventor: Charles Klein
  • Patent number: 8740218
    Abstract: A modular system for handing out playing cards, including at least one card-handing module and a frame module. Additionally, the system preferably also includes a power supply module and a score module. The card-handing module is particularly suitable for partaking as a replaceable component in connection with the other modules, and includes an essentially closed housing which substantially encloses a rotating spinner core. The card-handing module is configured for being able to receive a deck of playing cards and ejects the playing cards individually and in a specific direction that is determined by a step motor. The spinner core is suspended in the housing by two opposed bearings, where the motor constitutes the one bearing, while an opposed bearing is provided. Thereby a very compact unit is provided which is so noiseless that it can sit on a bridge game table and function without being a nuisance to the players.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2014
    Assignee: Bridge4People A/S
    Inventor: Peter Just
  • Patent number: 8733758
    Abstract: A method of establishing one or more puzzles from candidate deals of a card game such as poker, for supporting an exercise in guessing an opponent's concealed card holdings. The method may use random dealing, archived actual deals, and other manufactured or sourced material to source an inventory of candidate deals. To qualify a deal from the inventory of candidate deals, the method may quantify one or more parameters of a candidate card deal. Quantified parameters may be weighted or otherwise mathematically treated, then evaluated to arrive at a determination of suitability for establishing a puzzle based on the candidate deal. The puzzles may be used as the basis of an exercise or game wherein the participant must guess the nature of concealed card holdings. Where the invention is regarded as the resultant game, guesses may be mathematically quantified to arrive at a score.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Inventor: David Chodniewicz
  • Patent number: 8734263
    Abstract: A prefabricated flooring system used in a section of a bowling lane such as an approach section. The flooring system includes a plurality of wooden boards having a longitudinal axis. The plurality of wooden boards each having substantially flat side edges along the longitudinal axis. Interior boards of the plurality of wooden boards are bonded together by an adhesive applied on the side edges and two of the outermost boards of the plurality of boards are bonded only on one side edge by the adhesive to adjacent corresponding interior boards to form a preformed approach section of wooden boards. In one aspect, the boards have a thickness of approximately that of the bowling lane. In another aspect, the preformed approach section has a width greater than that of the bowling lane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: Qubicaamf Worldwide LLC
    Inventors: Gary J. Ford, Mark D. Kilpatrick, Phillip W. Whitaker, Jr.
  • Patent number: 8727908
    Abstract: A golf club head with a hollow comprises a face portion whose front face defines a clubface for hitting a ball, the face portion comprising a central thicker portion provided in a center region thereof and a peripheral thinner portion provided around the central thicker portion and with a thickness smaller than that of the central thicker portion, the inner surface of the peripheral thinner portion comprising a first region and a second region, the first region being provided with a plurality of first grooves which extend straightly in a certain direction, and the second region being provided with a plurality of second grooves which extend straightly in the different direction of first grooves.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignee: Dunlop Sports Co. Ltd.
    Inventor: Masato Goto
  • Patent number: 8721459
    Abstract: The present invention provides a push button release police baton in which the collapse of the extended sections into the larger handle section is accomplished by the use of a single axially positioned push button clutch alignment rod which aligns the clutch locking mechanisms located in the extended sections and releases the sections for collapse into the handle end section of the baton.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2014
    Assignee: Starkey Industries, LLC
    Inventor: Gary L. Pelkey
  • Patent number: 8695481
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a hot water supplying device for coffee machines comprising a condensation chamber having at least one output duct for supplying the hot water, a first duct having a first flow rate and arranged for injecting water or steam at a first temperature into the chamber, a second duct having a second flow rate and arranged for injecting water at a second temperature into the chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2014
    Assignee: Rancilio Group SPA
    Inventor: Carlo Carbonini
  • Patent number: 8684857
    Abstract: A method for bowling a ball typically in ten pin bowling using apparatus (10) in which a ball (15) is supported to movable support means typically a roller (23) which is rotatably driven by a motor (26) whilst the ball is restrained in a substantially fixed position with the apparatus (10) including a stop (29) which may be actuated to release the rotating ball (15) to allow said ball to travel in a desired direction of travel along an elongated guide member or barrel (11).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2014
    Inventors: David Leonard Buckley, Allan Paton
  • Patent number: 8672326
    Abstract: A game is described which includes playing media such as sticks or cards. The playing media have a first side with an identifying indicia and a second side with a question and its corresponding answer. The game consists of players collecting sticks for providing correct answers to the questions on the media. The object of the game is to collect the most media in a specified period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Inventor: Rosemarie Maalouf
  • Patent number: 8671828
    Abstract: A system and device for preparing a liquid beverage from a cartridge. The device includes a supply unit for supplying an injection fluid into the cartridge, a cartridge holder configured to accept and support the cartridge with the cartridge holder being detachable from the device. A complementary insertion mechanism of the device is configured to receive the cartridge holder in the device. The cartridge is positioned in the supply unit in an injection position with its injection surface substantially in an inclined plane relative to the horizontal plane and the injection mechanism is offset from the highest edge of the cartridge. The cartridge holder preferably comprises a linear wedge-shaped insertion member having a bearing surface inclined along an angle. The method of operation of the system and device are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Assignee: Nestec S.A.
    Inventors: Jean-Luc Denisart, Alain Meier, Enzo Bonacci, Hans Peter Pleisch, Christian Talon
  • Patent number: 8651486
    Abstract: An apparatus for providing hands of playing cards includes a playing card moving system for moving a number of playing cards defining a hand of playing cards from a container to a delivery tray, and a processor with software to direct the playing card moving system to randomly select how many playing cards will form the hand in the delivery tray. The apparatus is capable of randomly selecting numbers of cards to be delivered in a hand of cards to players and a dealer during a round of a casino table card game.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: Shfl Entertainment, Inc.
    Inventors: Attila Grauzer, Roger M. Snow
  • Patent number: 8636602
    Abstract: A bowling lane with a mural image is disclosed. In one embodiment, a plurality of bowling lane panels are provided, wherein each bowling lane panel depicts a different portion of a mural image. The plurality of bowling lane panels are assembled and secured onto a surface such that the assembly of the plurality of bowling lane panels forms the mural image. In another embodiment, a bowling center is provided with at least two bowling lanes. Each bowling lane depicts a mural image, and the mural images on the various bowling lanes form a composite multi-lane mural image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Brunswick Bowling & Billiards Corporation
    Inventors: Joy Eling, Troy Recknagel, Kurt Harz, John Roush
  • Patent number: 8602906
    Abstract: A bowling pin including a body having a head, a neck, a ball line portion, and a base all integrally formed of a synthetic material. The body includes a hollow area and a longitudinal axis of the hollow area extends generally perpendicularly to a substantially planar bottom surface of the base. A method of manufacturing a bowling pin includes providing a mold shell having a mold cavity shaped substantially as a bowling pin, disposing a mandrel inside a mold cavity, introducing material into the mold cavity, cooling the material inside the mold cavity, removing the mandrel from the mold cavity, removing the material from the mold cavity, and cooling the material outside the mold cavity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2013
    Assignee: Qubicaamf Worldwide LLC
    Inventors: Wayne White, Joe Infantino, Rodney C. Mallette, Ron Mizzi
  • Patent number: 8590898
    Abstract: A system and method of the inventive concept presents a casino game that is a table based card game that is generally played with a dealer, who deals the cards, and with players whom make the wagers. The game consists of multiple rounds and a player can wager and win on individual rounds or multiple rounds to make a “poker” hand. Additionally, there may be a progressive jackpot offered on the “poker” hands for players to wager upon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2013
    Inventor: Donald E. Buza
  • Patent number: 8568242
    Abstract: An expandable baton for use in self-defense training, comprising a plurality of sections including a handle and an end section, the plurality of sections adapted to nest within the handle section in a collapsed state. A magnet centrally mounted in an end cap engage a metal member in the end section to maintain the collapsed state until expansion is desired. When the expandable baton is extended, the handle section, middle section and the end section are frictionally engaged in an extended configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2013
    Inventor: Clive Milligan