Cup lid with an anti-splash ergonomic shape
A cup lid for covering a disposable beverage cup has an outer peripheral wall and concentric therewith, an inner peripheral wall. The outer and inner peripheral walls are spaced apart and are mutually joined by a top rim having an aperture through which liquids in the beverage cup may be disbursed when the top rim is held between the lips. A well is defined by the inner peripheral wall and a panel where the panel is contiguous with the inner peripheral wall. The top rim and horizontal panel are spaced apart by approximately one inch thereby establishing an adequate space for a person's nose within the well when the beverage cup is raised for draining liquid therein.
This application is a non-provisional application describing the same invention as a copending provisional application, Ser. No. 60/965,797, filed on Aug. 22, 2007, and which date priority is claimed therefrom. Said provisional application is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENTNot applicable.
THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENTNot applicable.
INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISCNot applicable.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Present Disclosure
This disclosure relates generally to lids for disposable beverage cups, and more particularly to such a cup lid with improved ergonomic features and a beneficial conformation that is a major departure with respect to the prior art.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Cuplike containers for coffee, soft drinks or other beverages often are provided with lids to cover the contents before and during use. Such lids may thermally insulate the contents and assist in excluding dust, hair, insects, leaves or other contaminants. Lids to cover such contents usually are flanged peripherally to fit down over the cup rim, which is often rolled or beaded to retain the lid securely but removably. Simple or multiple recessing of one or more regions of laminar lids is commonly practiced for structural reinforcement of what otherwise would be too flexible for the desired use.
DeDaro, U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,624, discloses a cup lid for use with a beverage cup comprising a peripheral flange to fit over a cup rim and a central portion containing a reclosable access closure flap selectively movable between an open and closed position having a pull tab formed on one end portion thereof and a hinge formed on the opposite end portion thereof and a first retainer element such that when the reclosable access closure flap is moved from the closed position to the open position the reclosable access closure flap engages the first retainer element to releasably retain the reclosable access closure flap in the open position.
Van Melle, U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,961, discloses a thin plastic disposable lid for use with a cup, typically a disposable plastic Styrofoam® or paper container. The lid includes a small foldback portion that is partially removed from the remainder of the lid by tearing it along tear lines that are coincident with the oriented fibers of the plastic material, thus creating an opening in the lid. No pre-formed score lines, slits or notches are required to facilitate proper tearing of the lid. Further, the foldback portion is hinged and retained in intimate engagement by the lid when it is fully open. A specific feature of the lid is that the foldback portion is easy to fold back and to engage. The foldback portion is also resealable over the opening in the lid.
Hament, U.S. Pat. No. 4,319,691, discloses a cup lid for fitting the lip of a cup. The lid comprises a first circular sealing flange that fits over an entire circumference of the lip and is effective to seal the cup against spillage, and a second circular sealing flange intersecting the first circular sealing flange and which may be fitted over the lip so as to form, together with the first circular sealing flange, a figure-8 outline. An opening in the cup lid outside the first circular sealing flange and inside the second circular sealing flange is effective to dispense material from the cup when the second circular flange is fitted over the lip.
The related art described above discloses several of the prior art cup lids. However, the prior art fails to disclose the configuration of the present invention and its advantages The present disclosure distinguishes over the prior art providing heretofore unknown advantages as described in the following summary.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention is a cup lid for covering a disposable beverage cup. Such cup lids provide important advantages such as being disposable so as to enable a beverage to be taken from a point of purchase and consumed “on the go.” Take out beverages are typically either hot or iced. With respect to such beverages, a cup lid has the general advantages of keeping the beverage sanitary, of maintaining its temperature while being consumed, and of limiting spills.
The presently described cup lid has a near-vertical outer peripheral wall sealingly engaged with a cup lip of a typical disposable beverage cup. Concentric therewith is a near-vertical inner peripheral wall. The outer and inner peripheral walls are spaced apart and are mutually joined by a contiguous top rim which has an aperture through which liquids in the beverage cup may be drawn when the top rim is held between the lips and the cup tipped toward the aperture. A central well is defined by the inner peripheral wall and a horizontal panel contiguous with the inner peripheral wall. The top rim and horizontal panel are spaced apart by at least one-inch thereby establishing a sufficient space for a person's nose within the well when the beverage cup is raised into a position for draining a last of the liquid held therein.
Cup lids in the prior art are typically flat across the lip of the beverage cup, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,624 at FIG. 2, and therefore make it impossible to drain all of the liquid from the cup without rotating one's head backward so that the nose is directed upwardly. This is uncomfortable to the neck and it makes it likely to spill liquid on oneself while drinking since the cup is positioned over the front surface of the drinker's face and chest. The present invention, as described above, provides the advantage of creating a space, the well, for the nose to enter so that the cup can be drained without rotating the head backwardly and while maintaining the lip of the beverage cup forward of the chest.
Another problem with a flat lid is that it is nearly impossible to sample the temperature of the liquid in the cup because a sip from the surface of the liquid is essentially the same temperature as the bulk of the liquid. The present cup lid overcomes this problem because when the beverage cup is tilted toward the aperture a relatively small amount of the contained beverage is “sampled” by being partially isolated from the bulk of the beverage as it flows into the space between the outer and inner peripheral walls prior to reaching the aperture. This partially isolated portion of the beverage is a small volume and is spread out so that it cools relative to the bulk of the beverage. By sampling in this manner it is possible to judge the temperature of the beverage at large.
A still further problem with a flat lid is that it is too easy to splash hot liquid on oneself. This is because a typical disposable beverage cup is filled to near the lip of the cup. Some prior art lids tend to provide a drinking aperture that is positioned below the lip of the lid and may, indeed, be just above, or actually in contact with the surface of the beverage liquid. In such cases, any inadvertent tilting of the beverage cup will tend to force liquid to squirt upward out of the drinking aperture. When one attempts to tilt the cup to start drinking, the liquid may exit the cup at a faster then expected rate, a spill problem, and a scalding problem. Finally, during handling of the cup when the surface of the beverage is below the lid's inner surface, a surface wave is normally propagated on the beverage surface and may cause squirting of liquid from the aperture even when the cup is not intentionally tilted. Of course, the present invention overcomes all of these difficulties by placing the drinking aperture at least one-inch above the surface of the beverage. Also, the inner and outer peripheral walls prevent surface waves from forming below the drink aperture, a further safety effect, i.e., anti-splash feature. A still further anti-splash feature of the present invention is that the entire top rim is slightly slanted inwardly toward the well and the portion of the top rim that has the drink aperture is raised above the general level of the rest of the top rim and the drink aperture is therefore tilted toward the well. Liquid that might rush toward the drink aperture tends to emerge at an angle biased toward the well and not toward the drinker.
A yet further problem with the flat prior art drink cup lids is that they do not afford any stacking feature. In order to carry two prior art drink cups from point of purchase, it is generally necessary to carry one in each hand. This makes opening doors, handling car keys and other simple tasks difficult. The present invention, as stated, provides a central well and this well is sized to snuggly receive the lower end of a drink cup so that nesting one cup within the lid of another makes it quite easy to carry two full drink cups with one hand.
The present invention preferably has an embossment or an impression formed in the central well that is able to provide a commercial message such as a logo or other indicia and may be visually offset by small amounts of colored beverage that may be collected in the well through spillage or leakage during the drinking process.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following more detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the presently described apparatus and method of its use.
Illustrated in the accompanying drawing(s) is at least one of the best mode embodiments of the present invention In such drawing(s):
The above described drawing figures illustrate the described apparatus and its method of use in at least one of its preferred, best mode embodiment, which is further defined in detail in the following description. Those having ordinary skill in the art may be able to make alterations and modifications to what is described herein without departing from its spirit and scope. Therefore, it should be understood that what is illustrated is set forth only for the purposes of example and should not be taken as a limitation on the scope of the present apparatus and its method of use.
Described now, and as best shown in
The top rim 16 and the central panel 11 are mutually spaced apart, see dimension “D” in
Preferably, a rim portion 16A of the top rim 16 has a drink aperture 15 therein, the rim portion 16A and the drink aperture 15 being mutually tilted toward the central well 18, that is, preferably, with the cup lid 10 held in a horizontal posture, as for instance, when it is properly mounted on drink cup 20, with the drink cup 20 standing on a horizontal surface, the top rim 16 including the rim portion 16A are tilted, at least a few degrees, away from the horizontal and toward the central well 18. In this case liquids that arrive onto the top rim 16 naturally flow into the central well 18. In the foregoing, it is assumed, as is universally applied, that the cup lid 10 is made of a relatively thin sheet plastic material molded into the shapes as described herein. In this sense, when it is stated herein that a portion of the cup lid 15 is formed into a particular attitude, i.e., vertical, horizontal, and so on, the meaning applies to both the portion described as well as its two opposing surfaces.
Preferably, the outer peripheral wall 12 has a peripheral sealing surface 13 that is configured to mate with a circular rim 22 of the drink cup 20 as shown in
In use, with the cup lid 10 mounted on the drink cup 20, a beverage within the drink cup 20 is able to be received by a person, as shown in
In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the central panel 11 is preferably embossed or impressed with a logo or other design as shown in
The enablements described in detail above are considered novel over the prior art of record and are considered critical to the operation of at least one aspect of the apparatus and its method of use and to the achievement of the above described objectives. The words used in this specification to describe the instant embodiments are to be understood not only in the sense of their commonly defined meanings, but to include by special definition in this specification: structure, material or acts beyond the scope of the commonly defined meanings. Thus if an element can be understood in the context of this specification as including more than one meaning, then its use must be understood as being generic to all possible meanings supported by the specification and by the word or words describing the element.
The definitions of the words or drawing elements described herein are meant to include not only the combination of elements which are literally set forth, but all equivalent structure, material or acts for performing substantially the same function in substantially the same way to obtain substantially the same result. In this sense it is therefore contemplated that an equivalent substitution of two or more elements may be made for any one of the elements described and its various embodiments or that a single element may be substituted for two or more elements in a claim.
Changes from the claimed subject matter as viewed by a person with ordinary skill in the art, now known or later devised, are expressly contemplated as being equivalents within the scope intended and its various embodiments. Therefore, obvious substitutions now or later known to one with ordinary skill in the art are defined to be within the scope of the defined elements. This disclosure is thus meant to be understood to include what is specifically illustrated and described above, what is conceptually equivalent, what can be obviously substituted, and also what incorporates the essential ideas.
The scope of this description is to be interpreted only in conjunction with the appended claims and it is made clear, here, that each named inventor believes that the claimed subject matter is what is intended to be patented.
Claims
1. A cup lid comprising:
- an outer peripheral wall and concentric therewith and in near parallel juxtaposition, an inner peripheral wall, the outer and inner peripheral walls spaced apart and mutually joined by a top rim;
- a well defined by the inner peripheral wall and a panel, the panel contiguous with the inner peripheral wall;
- the top rim and the panel in near parallel juxtaposition and vertically spaced apart by between ¾ and 1¼ inch thereby establishing the well with a space sufficient to receive a person's nose when the top rim is placed in the person's lips so that the panel is positioned in a near vertical attitude.
2. The cup lid of claim 1 wherein a portion of the top rim has an aperture therein, the portion of the top rim and the aperture mutually tilted toward the inner peripheral wall.
3. The cup lid of claim 1 wherein the outer peripheral wall has a peripheral sealing surface thereon shaped for engaging a lip of a drink cup.
4. The cup lid of claim 1 further comprising one of an embossment and an impression in the panel.
5. A combination drink cup with a cup lid engaged thereon, the combination comprising:
- the cup lid having an outer peripheral wall and concentric therewith and in near parallel juxtaposition, an inner peripheral wall, the outer and inner peripheral walls spaced apart and mutually joined by a top rim;
- a well defined by the inner peripheral wall and a panel, the panel contiguous with the inner peripheral wall;
- the top rim and the panel in near parallel juxtaposition and vertically spaced apart by between ¾ and 1¼ inches thereby establishing the well with a space sufficient to receive a person's nose when the top rim is placed in the person's lips and the drink cup is tilted toward the person.
6. The combination of claim 5 wherein a portion of the top rim has an aperture therein, the portion of the top rim and the aperture mutually tilted toward the inner peripheral wall.
7. The combination of claim 5 wherein the outer peripheral wall has a peripheral sealing surface shaped to sealingly engage the cup lip.
8. The combination of claim 5 wherein the well has a diameter approximately equal to an outside diameter of a lower portion of the drink cup whereby the drink cup is able to frictionally fit into the well for stacking one drink cup on top of another drink cup and for using the cup lid as a coaster for supporting and stabilizing the drink cup.
9. The combination of claim 5 wherein the top rim and the panel are spaced apart by approximately one-inch.
10. The cup lid of claim 5 further comprising one of an embossment and an impression in the panel.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 22, 2008
Publication Date: Feb 26, 2009
Inventor: Jason Alan Ivey (Irvine, CA)
Application Number: 12/229,408