CANE HOLDER

Abstract

A cane holder comprising a unitary body with a cane-receiving portion and a mounting member. The cane receiving portion comprises a pair of U-shaped hook members for receiving at least a handle portion of a cane and the mounting member comprises a clip portion made of a resilient member for removably attaching the cane holder to a belt or a waist band of a garment.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to holder for canes or walking sticks and more particularly the present invention relates to a holder for accommodating different types of canes, the holder is easily mountable on to a belt or a waistband of a garment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Walking sticks or canes have been used by many people as mobility aids since ages to facilitate walking. Canes can also be used as a supporting device, fashion accessory, or an object of defense. Based on the purpose of utilization, these canes are handcrafted into different shapes and sizes. In general, a walking cane is designed with a curved top hook and a main shaft. The design of these walking canes are personalized based on user requirements with focus on providing enough comfort and convenience. Especially, the design of curved top hook in all the walking canes is tailor-made for style and comfort parameters.

In certain instances, aged users generally carry a cane in their hands as a walking aid to support and balance mobility. However, the user cannot hold the cane in their hand all the time, during certain instances they have to use their hand(s) to perform some other activities like washing or cleaning hands, shaking hands for greeting someone, opening a door, putting on a coat, getting a card or money out of their wallet or purse and the like. During such instances, the user has to drop the cane down or find a supporting object or a wall to rest the cane against a vertical surface or even passing the cane to someone for holding it until they complete their task. In addition, users need a simple but effective solution to temporarily hold these walking canes whenever it is not required to be held in one or both hands.

There have been numerous attempts to solve the above-mentioned problem associated with temporary holding of walking canes. Conventional supporting devices are used to secure the cane to counters. However, this design has limitations with respect to the usage and adaptability is minimal. The above design does not give ease and convenience to the user without proper holding means. Walking cane retention clips provide temporary placement support for the cane. However, the clip has only one arch-like clasping element, which actually reduces the holding capability and its stability, especially, when used with canes of different sizes and shapes.

Prior art reference US 20080083798 A1 discloses a mobility aid retention clip for temporary placement of the cane but it is adaptable to receive only one type of cane and its size. Therefore, if the user wants to hold a cane of smaller diameter, then it would slip out from the holder. Another prior art reference U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,190 A discloses a cane keeper secured to counters wherein the device is limited to using canes of specific size and shape.

Another limitation with existing cane support devices is a need for separate adhesive or securing means to attach the support device to the user garment or belt. These cane holders can temporarily store a mobility aid but requires a tether be attached to the mobility aid by way of a hook-and-loop fastener. This adds more complexity to the design and usage of the cane holder device.

In light of aforementioned problems of conventional and traditional cane holders, there exists a need for a lightweight, easy to use, portable and easily mountable cane holder to accommodate various types of walking canes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a lightweight, easy to use, portable and easily mountable cane holder to accommodate various types of walking canes with improved holding capability.

The cane holder comprises a unitary body having a cane-receiving portion and a mounting member behind the cane-receiving portion. The cane-receiving portion comprises a pair of U-shaped hook members for receiving at least a portion of a cane such as handle of the cane. The U-shaped hook members define an opening there between to receive a body portion of the cane. The U-shaped hook members are configured to receive the handle portion of the cane. In case of a T-shaped handle, the opening between the hook members receives the body of the cane. In case of a curved handle, both of the U-shaped hook members are adapted to receive the curved handle portion. The mounting member comprises a clip portion for removably attaching the cane holder to a waistband of a user garment or clip on to an accessory such as a belt. The cane holder holds the cane temporarily and allows a person to be hands free while performing their everyday tasks.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and the specific examples, while indicating specific embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a front perspective view of a cane holder, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a side view of the cane holder, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows a rear perspective view of the cane holder, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of the cane holder removably attached to a garment, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of cane holder holding a cane with a T-shaped handle, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows a perspective view of cane holder holding a cane with a curved handle, according to a different embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows a perspective view of cane holder, according to a different embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 shows a perspective view of cane holder holding a cane, according to the different embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A description of embodiments of the present invention will now be given with reference to the Figures. It is expected that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.

Referring FIGS. 1-3, the cane holder assembly 100 is configured to accommodate different types of canes as described herein. FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 shows front perspective and rear perspective views respectively of the cane holder assembly 100. FIG. 2 shows a side view of the cane holder assembly. The cane holder 104 comprises a unitary body having a cane-receiving portion and a mounting member. The cane receiving portion comprises a pair of U-shaped hook members 108 for receiving at least a portion of a cane 110 and the mounting member comprises a clip portion 106 for removably attaching the cane holder 104 to a belt or a waist band 102 of a garment by a user. The U-shaped members 108 define an upwardly opening notch to receive a portion of the cane 110 and it is adapted to receive canes 110 of different sizes and shapes. The unitary body of the cane holder 104 comprises a pair of U-shaped hook members 108 on the front side for receiving the handle portion of a cane. The mounting member comprises a clip portion 106 at the rear side of the assembly for removably attaching the cane holder 104 to a belt or a waistband 102 of a garment by a user.

As shown in FIG. 4, the mounting member in the cane holder 104 comprises clip portion 106, which is made of a resilient material to secure the cane holder 104 to a user garment or a belt 102 without the use of a clamp, a snap or a strap. In the present invention, the user garment 102 as used herein is defined as an article of clothing such as a waistband of a garment, or accessory that is worn about the waist of an individual. The clip portion 106 of the mounting member includes a release flange 112 for releaseably clasping the cane holder 104 with the user garment 102. The resilient property of the clip portion 106 allows for easy clip on attachment of the cane holder 104 to the user garment 102 or belt or waistband. The release flange 112 is integrally formed form the bottom end of the clip portion 106 and it engages user garment 102 so that the clip cane holder assembly 100 is securely attached to the user garment 102. The cane holder 104 is universal and easily mountable on to a belt or a waistband 102 of a garment.

According of one embodiment of the invention, as shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, the U-shaped members 108 in the cane holder 104 are adapted to receive different handles of the cane 110, but not limited to canes with curved or hook shaped handle or T-handle canes.

According to one embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, the cane holder 104 temporarily holds the cane 110 using the U-shaped members 108 which allows the user to be hands free to do all the simple everyday tasks. The cane holder 104 is designed in such a way that the cane 110 resting on the U-shaped members 108 is not allowed to move or slip whenever the user is doing activities like washing hands, shaking hands, opening doors, putting on a coat, getting I.D. out of wallet or purse or any other personal needs.

The cane holder is manufactured from a rigid or semi-rigid plastic material wherein the plastic is selected from the group consisting of thermoplastic sheet, thermoformed polymers, thermoset polymers, fiber reinforced composites, epoxies or resins and this provides high strength, durability, resiliency, flexibility (semi-rigid), low-porosity, elastomeric memory, spring tension, and lubricious glide characteristics. The plastic material provides a lightweight clip assembly 100 to get fixed to the user garment 102 with improved holding capability, further, the cane holder 104 provides overall artistic appearance and more diversified stylish thereby making it as an essential support unit for canes. The finished thickness of the U-shaped members 108 may diverge from the 12.7 millimeters dimension and that of clip cane holder assembly 100 is 50.8 millimeters. It is contemplated that the height and width of the clip cane holder assembly 100 would be sufficient to provide adequate support for releasable retention of a cane. The cane holder 104 is universal according to the present invention, and is designed to accommodate canes of any size, but not limited to one-inch diameter cane or even the smallest diameter cane.

According to another embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIG. 7 and FIG. 8, a plastic belt clip cane holder assembly 200 with a C-shaped member to accommodate different types of canes is described herein. The cane holder assembly 200 comprises unitary body comprising a cane receiving portion and a resilient mounting member, wherein the cane receiving portion comprises a C-shaped member 202 configured to receive the portion of the cane 210 wherein the C-shaped members 202 define an upwardly opening notch to receive the cane and the resilient mounting member 204 is configured to removably attach the cane holder 200 to a user garment 102.The mounting member 204 is configured to secure the cane holder assembly 200 to a user garment 102 without the use of a clamp, a snap or a strap. The mounting member 204 further comprises are lease flange 212 for releaseably clasping the cane holder assembly 200 with the user garment 102. The C-shaped member 202 in the cane holder 200 assembly is adapted to receive canes 210 with different sizes and shapes. This cane holder assembly 200 holds the cane 210 temporarily allows the user to do activities like washing hands, shaking hands, opening doors, putting on a coat, getting I.D. out of wallet or purse or any other personal needs.

Although the present invention has been described herein in the context of a particular implementation in a particular environment for a particular purpose, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that its usefulness is not limited thereto and that the present invention may be beneficially implemented in any number of environments for any number of purposes. Accordingly, the claims set forth below should be construed in view of the full breadth and spirit of the present invention as described herein. Although specific terms may be employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.

Claims

1. A cane holder comprising:

a unitary body comprising a cane receiving portion and a mounting member, the cane receiving portion comprises a pair of U-shaped hook members for receiving at least a portion of a cane and the mounting member comprises a clip portion for removably attaching the cane holder to a waist band.

2. The cane holder of claim 1, wherein the cane holder is manufactured from a rigid or semi-rigid plastic material.

3. The cane holder of claim 1, wherein the U-shaped hook members are configured to receive a handle portion of the cane.

4. The cane holder of claim 1, further comprises an opening defined in between the pair of U-shaped hook members.

5. The cane holder of claim 4, wherein the opening is configured to receive a T-handle cane.

6. The cane holder of claim 1, wherein the clip portion comprises a resilient material to secure the cane holder to a user garment or a belt.

7. The cane holder of claim 1, wherein the clip portion further comprises a release flange for releasably clasping the cane holder with the user garment.

8. A cane holder for releasably retaining a portion of a cane, the cane holder comprising: a unitary body formed as a single continuous member comprising a cane