Patents by Inventor Richard L. Keats

Richard L. Keats 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: 4915633
    Abstract: A user-propelled toy school bus which as it travels along a playing surface exhibits through its side and rear windows the successive letters of the alphabet. These letters are printed along an endless scroll that is guided in a path running behind the windows, each letter being defined by a series of equi-spaced parallel segments. The scroll is so driven by one set of the bus wheels through a unidirectional drive system that as the bus travels in either direction, the scroll always advances continuously in the same direction. Formed on each window is a parallel array of equi-spaced viewing elements. As the scroll advances behind each window, the segments of each letter alternatively move into registration with the viewing elements to expose the letter, and then the interstices between the segments move into registration with the viewing elements to blank out the letter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 1989
    Date of Patent: April 10, 1990
    Assignee: Buddy L Corporation
    Inventors: Robert T. Auer, David W. Reina, Richard L. Keats
  • Patent number: 4889514
    Abstract: A hand-propelled toy airplane, locomotive or other wheeled vehicle for pre-school children having a handle making it possible for a player to push the vehicle along a surface. The vehicle is provided with one or more lights whose bulbs are connected to a battery supply through a handle switch that is actuated only when the player grasps the handle to turn on the lights. Operatively coupled to the axle of a wheel set is an interrupter switch connected in series with the handle switch, the circuit arrangement being such that when the handle switch is actuated, at least one light goes one, and when the vehicle is pushed along the surface, the actuated interrupter switch then causes the lights to turn on intermittently to produce a blinking effect at a rate depending on how fast the vehicle is being propelled. When the handle switch is released by the player, the battery supply is disconnected from the bulbs, so that no power is drained from the supply when the toy is not in use.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 1988
    Date of Patent: December 26, 1989
    Assignee: Buddy L Corp.
    Inventors: Robert T. Auer, Richard L. Keats, Jore M. Chung
  • Patent number: 4848577
    Abstract: A double-faced blister pack and frame assembly for packaging and displaying an article of merchandise. The article is sandwiched between a pair of superposed, transparent plastic sheets whose central regions are molded to generally conform to the opposite faces of the article, the four superposed margins of the sheets each defining a flange. The frame is formed of a cardboard strip that is so die-cut and folded as to create a chain of four interhinged branches each having a triangular truss cross section whose base chord is the outer wall of the frame and whose central strut is constituted by parallel walls extending from the apex of the triangle to the base chord to form a narrow slot. Socketed in the slot of each branch is the corresponding flange of the pack whereby the pack is supported by the frame, and the opposite faces of the article which lie within the frame are both exposed to a prospective purchaser who is able to fully examine the article without having to break open the package to do so.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 1988
    Date of Patent: July 18, 1989
    Assignee: Buddy L. Corporation
    Inventors: Leo Hoffman, Robert T. Auer, Richard L. Keats, Stephan Roeser, Lawrence Stern
  • Patent number: 4764146
    Abstract: A toy vehicle in the form of a pickup truck on whose rear bed are mounted a pair of miniature dog houses in side-by-side relation, each having a triangular roof hinged to the rear wall of the house. Depending from the front end of each roof is a front wall having an arched opening defining the entry to the dog house which is occupied by a miniature puppy whose head projects through the entry. The puppy is otherwise confined within the doghouse and is removable therefrom only by lifting the roof. To discourage unauthorized removal of a puppy from its doghouse when the toy is on sales display, each roof is provided on its underside with a latching lug having a slot therein aligned with holes in the sidewalls of the dog houses. Insertable into these holes and going through the lugs is a disposable locking pin whose tip is so formed as to frictionally engage the side wall hole in which it is received. Hence to release the roofs and obtain access to the puppies, the pin has to be forcibly pulled out.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 1987
    Date of Patent: August 16, 1988
    Assignee: Buddy L Corporation
    Inventors: Robert T. Auer, Richard L. Keats
  • Patent number: 4743030
    Abstract: A simulated combat game set in which the players are provided with toy water guns and each player wears a target. When a gun is fired by a player it shoots out a beam of water, each player trying to hit a vulnerable site on the target worn by an opposing player and thereby strike him out. To this end, the vulnerable site on the target is constituted by a plaque or label having printed thereon a strike symbol or other hit indicator covered by a mask that conceals the indicator. The hit indicator is rendered readable only when the mask is made wet and transparent by a water beam impinging thereon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 1986
    Date of Patent: May 10, 1988
    Assignee: Buddy L Corporation
    Inventors: Robert T. Auer, Richard L. Keats