GB2275179A - Drinks container - Google Patents

Abstract

A drinks container 10 has the form of a doll 14 or like toy or plaything with a mouth 16 being or having an egress 18 for the drink 12. Container 10 may be shaped to be held by two hands but able to be grasped firmly by either hand. Egress 18 may comprise a straw 24 or like tube which may be so short that the drinker has to kiss the doll mouth to mouth to drink, but can be extended by pulling it out through the mouth 16. Tube 24 may be provided with a removable protective cover (46, Fig. 8) and with a valve (56, Fig. 7) to prevent egress of the drink 12 under the action of low pressure difference between the inside and outside of the container but permit at the same under high such pressure difference. A ring-seal 26 may seal tube 24 to egress 18. Container 10 may be reusable and have a cap 62, threaded at 64 to its body 14 and provided with a "child-proof lock". <IMAGE>

Description

CONTAINER FOR DRINK FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a container for drink, more especially one for use by young children.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Drinks containers for young children are designed bearing in mind their particular use. Accordingly, some are designed to be fully enclosed apart from a small drinking egress and, as such, are often designated "non-spill". Even with these, the child often throws the container out of the pram or simply drops it when distracted by something more interesting.

THE INVENTION The present inventor has made a study of the circumstances surrounding such use of a drink container by a young child and has realised that the intensity of the child's grasp of any object and retentivity thereof depend upon various psychological factors, one being the interest of the object and another, unobvious one being the attractiveness of the object, comprehended in the nature of the object, the amount of love It generates in the child, its familiarity, the degree to which it actuates natural feelings of the child and/or perhaps other aspects.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a container for drink as claimed in claim 1. It appears that a mouth is a familiar and welcome object to a young child, who will therefore retain such a drink container longer and more firmly than any other kind to be grasped by the child in its hands. The mouth may have pouting lips which lend themselves to ready sucking by a child. For perhaps older children, a straw or similar drinking tube is more appropriate. To improve the likelihood of good and retentive grasp of the container by the child, the container may be as claimed as claim 2.For young children, a particularly efficacious drinking tube is one that projects only slightly from the lips so that the child is substantially in mouth to mouth kissing relationship with the lips when drinking For an older child, the straw or other drinking tube may conveniently be of a kind that can be extended by pulling it out through the mouth. In any case, there may be spillage and this can be prevented to a substantial extent if the egress is provided with a valve in the manner claimed in claim 7. The invention may be embodied in a disposable container, e.g.

one like a carton or one made of blow-moulded plastics material.

However, many mothers will want a reusable container and a particularly convenient form of one has one or more of the features of claims 9 to 11. The cap may be a screw-cap or a clip-on cap.

While the container may be wholly encased for display in a shop, for example, the present inventor appreciates that a mother may wish to test the effect of different shapes on a child and how well it will grasp them. For this purpose, the container should be readily accessible to the grasp of a child. There is then a problem of hygiene. Accordingly, a particularly advantageous feature is to provide the drinking tube with a removable protective cover, preferably one that can be simply peeled off by an adult yet cannot readily be peeled off by a child, e.g. one having a grasping tab that lies flat to a surface of the container and has to be lifted up with a nail of the mother.

A particularly interesting shape is one which is simply in the shape of two large lips, preferably in the shape of a smile, possibly with handles at either end.

Reference will now be made by way of example of the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic front view of a doll-like container embodying the invention; Figure 2 is a similar view of a teddy bear-like container embodying the invention; Figure 3 is a side view of a dog-like container embodying the invention; Figure 4 is a front view of a container like a space creature embodying the invention; Figure 5 is a similar view of a container like a mouth embodying the invention; Figure 6 is a perspective view of a doll-like carton embodying the invention; Figure 7 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of a valve for use in embodiments of the invention; and Figure 8 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of an egress provided with a cover for use in embodiments of the invention.

Referring to the drawings, a container 10 for drink 12 has the form of a doll 14 with a mouth 16, the mouth 16 having an egress 18 for the liquid 12 to be drunk. Since the container 10 has the form of a doll 14 which is quite fat, this shape is conducive to the doll 14 being held by two hands of a child simultaneously but, by virtue of the arms 20 and legs 22, the container 10 is able to be grasped firmly by each hand alone of the child. The egress 18 comprises a straw or like drinking tube 24 with which said mouth 18 is provided, permanently sealed thereto by means of a ring-seal 26.The tube 24 has a diameter of about quarter to half centimetre (one eighth to one quarter inch) and a projecting length of about two centimetres (one inch) thus, the drinking tube 24 is so short that the drinker (the child) has substantially to kiss the doll 14 on its mouth 16 in order to be able to drink the drink 12. As seen in Figure 1, the tube 24 extends inwardly to the bottom 28 of the container 10. The upper end of the tube 24 projects directly out of the mouth (towards the viewer, as seen in Figure 1).

The container 30 seen in Figure 2 has the shape of a teddy bear 30. Its drinking tube 24 can be extended by pulling it out through the mouth 16 until a stop 32 on tube 24 encounters the back of mouth 16.

Below stop 32, the lower portion of tube 24 may conveniently be flexible and have its bottom end anchored by means 34 to the bottom 28 of container 30.

The container 10 may have the shape of a dog 36, Figure 3, or a space creature 38, Figure 4, or a mouth 40, Figure 5, the latter preferably being provided with a pair of handles 42, 42. In each case, a drinking tube 24 projects from a mouth 16. In a further embodiment, shown in Figure 6, the container is a carton 44, which may be simply rectangular in shape but is in the form of a head with a face and, in particular, a mouth 16 having a straw 24 projecting from the mouth via a ring-seal 26 and inwardly extending to the bottom 28 of the container 44.

As exemplified in Figure 6, the drinking tube 24 is provided with a removable protective cover 46 in the form of a shaped strip 46 that can be peeled from container 44 by means of its tab 48 which lies flush with the front face of container 44 but can be lifted therefrom by an adult using a fingernail. This is shown in horizontal cross-section in Figure 8. The region under cover strip 46 is normally kept airtight by a peelable adhesive ring-like layer 50 which is transparent. The tube 24 is flexible at region 52.As seen in Figure 7, the tube 24 is provided with a valve 56 in the form of flap attached to a side wall of tube 24 that seats on a valve seat 58 in the form of a ring around the inside wall of tube 24 and withstands considerable pressure difference tending to suck liquid in the direction of arrow 60 but is not able to withstand the amount of pressure difference generated by a sucking child.

As seen in Figure 1, the container 10 is reusable, having a screwcap 62 to allow refilling of the container 10, the screw-cap 62 being in the form of the head of the doll and being provided with a so-called "child-proof lock" in the region of its threaded portion 64 at which it is attached to the body portion 66 of the doll 14. Such child-proof locks are well known, e.g. the kind used for the screw-cap of a tablets bottle or medicine bottle and will not be described in further detail here. Instead of a screw-cap, it is possible to effect the connection between the cap 62 and the body 64 by means of a clip-on fitting, e.g.

with a bayonet type of connection that can be designed to be "childproof" at least to the extent of inhibiting the opening thereof by a child.

It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that many variations of the foregoing can be made within the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, any features of any one or more embodiments can be combined with any features of any one or more other embodiments or, again, any new and unobvious feature or combination of features herein disclosed may be considered to be an invention in its own right.

Claims (9)

1. A container for drink, characterised in that it has the form of a doll or like toy or plaything with a mouth, the mouth being or having an egress for the liquid to be drunk.

2. A container as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that it is shaped to be conducive to being held by two hands simultaneously but is able to be grasped firmly by each hand alone.

3. A container as claimed in claim 1 or 2, characterised in that said egress comprises a straw or like drinking tube with which said mouth is provided.

4. A container as claimed in claim 3, characterised in that said drinking tube is so short that the drinker has substantially to kiss the doll or the like mouth to mouth in order to be able to drink the drink.

5. A container as claimed in claim 3, characterised in that the drinking tube can be extended by pulling it out through the mouth.

6. A container as claimed in any one of claims 3 to 5, characterised in that the drinking tube is provided with a removable protective cover.

7. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6, characterised in that the egress is provided with a valve that substantially will prevent egress of the liquid under the action of low pressure difference between the inside and outside of the container but will permit the same under high sch pressure difference.

8. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7, characterised in that it is reusable.

9. A container as claimed in claim 8, characterised in that it has a cap to allow refilling of the container.