Patents by Inventor Larry N. Ballard

Larry N. Ballard has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 5417232
    Abstract: A multiple lock dental floss holder comprises a body cooperative with a spool enclosure assembly to achieve multiple locking of a operative length of dental floss. An intermediate portion of the body of the dental floss holder has a through bore opening on one side to a spool receiving cavity and on the other side to an irregular surface. A spool enclosure piece or base is received into the spool receiving cavity and has an annular cavity between an annular flange skirt and a central hub or base for receiving a spool of dental floss. The central hub or a pin extends through the through bore of the intermediate portion and connects to a cap or cooperates with a pin base also having an irregular surface that is complimentary with the irregular surface of the intermediate portion to selectively achieve a mating or non-mating engagement therewith to selectively allow release or capture of a length of dental floss between the irregular surfaces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 1993
    Date of Patent: May 23, 1995
    Inventor: Larry N. Ballard
  • Patent number: 5301698
    Abstract: A multiple lock dental floss holder comprises a body cooperative with a spool enclosure assembly to achieve multiple locking of an operative length of dental floss. An intermediate portion of the body of the dental floss holder has a through bore opening on one side to a spool receiving cavity and on the other side to an irregular surface. A spool enclosure piece or base is received into the spool receiving cavity and has an annular cavity between an annular flange skirt and a central hub or base for receiving a spool of dental floss. The central hub or a pin extends through the through bore of the intermediate portion and connects to a cap also having an irregular surface which is cooperative with the irregular surface of the intermediate portion to selectively achieve a mating or non-mating engagement therewith to selectively allow release or capture of a length of dental floss between the irregular surfaces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 1992
    Date of Patent: April 12, 1994
    Inventor: Larry N. Ballard
  • Patent number: 4676762
    Abstract: The toy building block kit includes a variety of buildingblock pieces with a first building block piece (e.g., piece 10, 100, 110, etc.) having on at least one side thereof, a longitudinal slot (20, 102, 112, etc.) and a transverse slot (30, 104, 114, etc.), and a second building block piece (e.g., piece 12, 140, 150, etc.) having on at least one side thereof a rib (60, 130, 142, 152, etc.) extending therefrom sized, configured and dimensioned to be received in one of the slots (20, 102, 112 etc. or 30, 104, 114, etc.) in said first piece.The pieces can be elongate, rectangular or triangular and each piece has crossing slots (e.g., slots 20, 30) therein forming a waffle or matrix pattern on the various sides thereof.Also each piece, (e.g., piece 10) may have one or more ribs (e.g., ribs 60) extending from a side thereof for interconnecting with another piece (e.g., piece 12).Furthermore, a variety of specialty pieces, e.g.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 1983
    Date of Patent: June 30, 1987
    Inventor: Larry N. Ballard