US20110209838A1

US20110209838A1 - Under furniture barrier

Info

Publication number: US20110209838A1
Application number: US13/035,676
Authority: US
Inventors: Kevin SANTORA
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2010-02-26
Filing date: 2011-02-25
Publication date: 2011-09-01

Abstract

A removable barrier having a housing; at least one barrier band retractable from the housing which is intended to be wrapped around furniture legs, where latching an end of the barrier band to either the housing or a second barrier band when retracted forms a physical barrier preventing objects from going under furniture.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of priority from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 61/308,624 filed Feb. 26, 2010, said application is incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to a furniture accessory and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a guard to block items from going under furniture. Although, mothers have been against it, people have enjoyed playing catch and fetch with their pets or children indoors for years. Many times during the course of playing catch/fetch the ball or throw toy has found its way under furniture. The ball or throw toy then needs to be fished out from under the furniture. In order to retrieve the ball or toy, an adult or child would have to lay down, stretch out, or grab a broom or long stick to reach the item or it stays under the piece of furniture and is not recovered for a long period of time. The person retrieving the item can often wind up with dust, (pet) hair, or dirt on their clothing and/or body. In addition, the child or adult may accidentally, in the course of attempting to grab the item, hurt themselves on a nail or splintered piece of wood under the furniture or even possibly be bitten by a bug or spider.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to prevent objects from going under furniture.
It is a further object of the present invention to prevent objects from going too far under furniture that are unreachable without having to lay down, stretch out, or grab a broom or longs stick to reach the items.
It is a further object of the present invention to prevent pet toys and balls from going under furniture.
It is a further object of the present invention to be visually pleasing so as to blend in with the furniture. The barrier being matched to the same color as that of the furniture.
It is a further object of the present invention that the barrier bands be transparent so as to not detract from the aesthetics of the furniture.
It is a further object of the present invention to be effective while not permanently damaging or altering the furniture, and so the area under the furniture will be easily accessible to cleaning.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides for a removable barrier that is adapted to fit under furniture to provide a barrier to items from making their way under the furniture. The barrier is comprised of a housing which internally supports retractable barrier bands (guard strips), the barrier bands being extendable and retractable by spring means from the housing to wrap around the legs of the furniture piece.
According to one aspect of some embodiments of the present invention there is provided a removable barrier comprised of a housing having extendable/retractable barrier bands. The barrier bands having attachment means on their ends so as to facilitate attachment of the bands to furniture legs by wrapping the bands around furniture legs. The barrier bands further having attachment means (hooks, velcro, buttons, clasps or the like) on the ends of the bands so as to create a physical barrier under a piece of furniture. The ends of the bands being attached to one another once they are wrapped around legs of furniture. The bands also can be made of but not limited to any elastic material, latex, mesh material, nylon or lycra. The material can be custom matched to the furniture it is intended to be used under by matching the color of the furniture or being made of a transparent material or “nude” color so that it does not distract from the aesthetics of the furniture.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, where the housing only supports one barrier band which wraps around furniture legs where the end of the barrier band attaches to the housing by means of hooks or velcro or similar attachment structure. The hooks being placed on the free end of the barrier band and the housing structure so that when the barrier band is extended around the furniture legs, the end of the barrier band with the attachment structure is fastened to the housing attachment structure so as to fixedly hold the barrier band in place around the furniture legs.
Unless otherwise defined, all technical and/or scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention pertains. Although methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of embodiments of the invention, exemplary methods and/ or materials are described below. In case of conflict, the patent specification, including definitions, will control. In addition, the materials, methods, and examples are illustrative only and are not intended to be necessarily limiting.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Some embodiments of the invention are herein described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings. With specific reference now to the drawings in detail, it is stressed that the particulars shown are by way of example and for purposes of illustrative discussion of embodiments of the invention. In this regard, the description taken with the drawings makes apparent to those skilled in the art how embodiments of the invention may be practiced.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the barrier;

FIG. 2 is an elevated perspective view of the barrier deployed under furniture in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the barrier deployed under furniture in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an elevated view of a single barrier band embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is an elevated perspective view of the removable barrier in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to a furniture guard and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a guard to block items from going under furniture.
Before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not necessarily limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of the components and/or methods set forth in the following description and/or illustrated in the drawings and/or the examples. The invention is capable of other embodiments or of being practiced or carried out in various ways.
For purposes of better understanding some embodiments of the present invention, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 of the drawings, reference is first made to the construction of the barrier 5. Barrier housing 1 houses barrier bands 10 and 20. Barrier bands 10 and 20 are affixed within housing 1 by means of a spiral spring which fixedly attaches the barrier bands the housing so that the bands are selectively extendable and retractable. Barriers bands 10 and 20 are made of a flexible material such as elastic, nylon, mesh, latex, lycra or the like. It is expected that during the life of a patent maturing from this application many relevant materials may be developed and the scope of the term barrier band is intended to include all such new technologies. Barrier bands 10 and 20 each having a first end (not shown) that is affixed to the spring within the housing 1. A fastener, such as velcro wrap 10 and 20 are located at opposing second ends (not labeled) of barrier bands 10 and 20. Velcro wraps 12 and 22 allow for barriers bands 10 and 20 to be affixed to each other. In another embodiment of the present invention, velcro wraps 12 and 22 maybe replaced by other means for fastening barrier bands 10 and 20 to each other, such as hooks, buttons, clasps, etc.
Referring now to the drawings, FIGS. 2 & 3 illustrate the operation of barrier 5. The removable barrier is situated under a couch 30 being supported by legs 31, 32, 33 & 34. Barrier housing 1 is placed between legs 31 & 32. As further illustrated in FIG. 3, barrier bands 10 and 20 are then stretched out from barrier housing 1 and wrapped around legs 31 & 32 and then around legs 33 & 34, until the velcro wraps 12 and 22 are parallel to each other, so as to allow the locking means to engage each other. This creates a barrier under couch 30 and ball 50 cannot make its way under couch 30. Ball 50 can be any object, a pet's toy or child's toy, it is not limited to a ball.
In another embodiment of the present invention, illustrated in FIG. 4, there is only a single barrier band 10. FIG. 4 illustrates barrier housing 100 which houses barrier band 110. Barrier band 110 having an end (not shown) that is retractably affixed within housing 100. Barrier band 110 having a second opposing end 112 that has a velcro strip 115 or other means for attaching, as discussed above. Located on housing 100 is a velcro strip 120 or other means for attaching to end 112, which mates with strip 115 so as to create the physical barrier under the furniture, as discussed above. In use, Barrier band 110 is wrapped around the legs of the furniture piece such as in FIGS. 2 & 3, however in this embodiment only one barrier band 110 wraps all the way around the furniture legs until it reaches back to housing 100 and then attaches to velcro strip 120, so as to stay in place.
In another embodiment of the present invention, illustrated in FIG. 5, removable barrier 200, which comprises of barrier band 201 having a first end 205 attached to a spool 220 and a second end 210 attached to a clip 225. Wherein barrier band 200 can wrap around spool 220 for storage. In use barrier band 201 is unraveled from spool 220 and wrapped around an object, such as legs 31, 32, 33 & 34 as shown in FIGS. 2 & 3. Clip 225 can then either clip on to barrier band 200 or to spool 220 to form a barrier. Additionally, for larger objects removable barrier 200 can be clipped to another removable barrier so that distance of protection is extended. Clip 225 can be any means for attaching such as velcro, buttons, hooks, clasps, etc.
Although the invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and broad scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A removable barrier comprising: a housing; a barrier band retractable from said housing and a means for latching an end of said barrier band to a second barrier band retractable from said housing to form a physical barrier preventing objects from going under furniture.

2. The removable barrier of claim 1 wherein said means for latching is velcro.

3. The removable barrier of claim 1 wherein said means for latching are hooks.

4. The removable barrier of claim 1 wherein said means for latching are buttons.

5. The removable barrier of claim 1 wherein said means for latching are clasps.

6. The removable barrier of claim 1 wherein said barrier band is made of an elastic material.

7. The removable barrier of claim 1 wherein said barrier band is made of latex.

8. The removable barrier of claim 1 wherein said barrier band is made of mesh material.

9. The removable barrier of claim 1 wherein said barrier band is made of nylon.

10. The removable barrier of claim 1 wherein said barrier band is made of lycra.

11. A removable barrier comprising: a barrier band, having a first and a second end, said first end affixed to a spool, said second end having means for latching said second end of said barrier band to said spool to form a physical barrier preventing objects from going under furniture.

12. The removable barrier of claim 11 wherein said means for latching is velcro.

13. The removable barrier of claim 11 wherein said means for latching are hooks.

14. The removable barrier of claim 11 wherein said means for latching are buttons.

15. The removable barrier of claim 11 wherein said means for latching are clasps.

16. The removable barrier of claim 11 wherein said barrier band is made of an elastic material.

17. The removable barrier of claim 11 wherein said barrier band is made of mesh.

18. The removable barrier of claim 11 wherein said barrier band is made of nylon.

19. The removable barrier of claim 11 wherein said barrier band is made of lycra.

20. A removable barrier comprising: a housing; a barrier band retractable from said housing, and a means for latching an end of said barrier band to said housing when retracted to form a physical barrier preventing objects from going under furniture.