Abstract:
A writing instrument having rotatable beads of various shapes and sizes abutting one another so that the beads form logos, designs, words or messages for promotional or advertising purposes. The beads provide an ergonomically pleasing sensation to the user and further provide an element of amusement to the user.

Description:
This application is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 09/760,549, filed Jan. 16, 2001, now abandoned, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 09/219,966, filed Dec. 3, 1998 now abandoned. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This invention relates to the field of writing instruments, and more particularly, relates to a writing instrument having beads positioned about the writing instrument for amusement purposes or as an advertising and promotional device. 
     2. Related Art 
     Writing instruments, such as pens, are an everyday part of our lives. They remain the most common implements for effecting non-verbal communication. Additionally, writing instruments, such as ball point pens, are frequently utilized in advertising and promotion for businesses. It is believed that several million ballpoint pens are sold each year in the United States alone as promotional give-away items for vendors of various goods and services. Fundraisers of all types, including fundraisers for various educational and religious entities, also utilize the sale of writing utensils to procure funding for various projects. There exists a need to provide a writing instrument, such as a pen or pencil, with a novel means of providing advertising and to promote businesses, groups, ideas, beliefs and displays fanciful messages. 
     It is well known to provide a writing instrument, such as a pen or pencil, with sleeves or cylindrical members for keeping a calendar. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 2,445,170 to Gonczi provides a writing instrument having a built-in calendar in a cap, consisting of multiple cylinders on a single axis. The device disclosed by Gonczi records information on interfitting cylinder members and disclosed the information by way of day, month and year (as recorded on separate cylinders) through windows on the outer most cylinder members. However, the Gonczi fountain pen is not adapted to display advertisements or otherwise allow the seller to promote its goods or services or to provide amusement to the user. Moreover, the device disclosed does not allow the seller to provide the writing instrument with various shapes and sizes to aid in promoting the seller&#39;s business. 
     Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 2,577,259 to Millington and U.S. Pat. No. 2,702,439 to Swenssen disclose devices having calendars on their exterior surfaces and being adapted to hold writing instruments. Like Gonczi, the Millington and Swenssen devices provide cylindrical members, one on top of the other in an interfitting manner, that work in unison to display the day, month and year when the user manipulates the cylinder members into the appropriate positions. As such, these devices are not adapted for, nor do they suggest, advertising or promotion uses. Moreover, both Millington and Swenssen relate to holders of writing utensils where the disclosed devices are fitted over the writing utensil, thus adding additional cost and complexity to the writing instrument itself. 
     There have been a number of penholder designs employed for the purpose of amusement. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,062 to Hour relates to a penholder with puzzle blocks whereby a number of blocks with slideable lateral faces are received about a stem that encompasses an ink cartridge. The blocks are arranged such that the user moves the slideable faces between the various rotatable blocks as a puzzle game similar to a RUBICS CUBE®. However, the device disclosed in Hour is relatively complex and costly to manufacture and is not well adapted for use as an advertising or promotional device. Moreover, the Hour device is a penholder, not a writing instrument, again adding to the cost of manufacture by necessitating additional components and assembly expense. 
     The patent which issued to Du Lude (U.S. Pat. No. 2,357,940) shows a device for counting words and symbols of messages, such as a telegraph message, consisting of a counting mechanism stored in the casing of a writing instrument. The counting mechanism is actuated by depressing the point of the device (i.e, a pen or pencil) adjacent to each word or symbol to be counted and displays the number of words or symbols thus counted through windows on the casing of the device. The Lude device is not, however, intended as an item for advertising and promotion or for amusement of the user. Additionally, the counting mechanism disclosed requires a great deal of space, thus making the device rather unwieldy and uncomfortable to the user. 
     Accordingly, there exists a need to provide a writing instrument that is adapted for advertising, promotion and amusement, esthetically pleasing, simple and inexpensive to manufacture and ergonomically pleasing to the use. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In order to overcome the shortcomings of known writing instruments, the present invention has been developed with a number of goals in mind, principal of which is to provide a new and improved writing utensil holder which is rugged and simple in construction, pleasing in appearance and in operation, inexpensive to manufacture and can be used to advertise and promote the goods and services of a vendor and provide amusement to its user. 
     The present invention provides a writing instrument, which comprises a writing member, a nib socket or writing end, a plurality of rotatable indicia, and an end or aft socket. The indicia, nominally beads, are adapted to rotate about the writing member. Each of the rotatable indicia may be selected from the geometric group consisting of spheres, cylinders, cubes, polyhedrons and other shapes, each having a bore through its center line axis for being received about the center line axis of the writing member. The indicia are nominally decorated on their exterior surface with symbols, lettering or numbering, such that, when arranged together about the writing member, the indicia form a logo, spell words, form symbolic messages or present a purely fanciful display. The decorations on each exterior surface of the indicia may be of a different color, or display a different letter, number or symbol to add to the amusement value of the writing instrument. The indicia also provide a second gripping surface for the writing instrument that is ergonomically pleasing to the user. 
     The present invention serves the purpose of being a low cost writing instrument which, at the same time, provides advertising, promotion, and identification to the seller and amusement to the user. 
     Other objects or advantages will be apparent or pointed out in the following description. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     For a better understanding of the present invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a new and improved writing instrument with indicia according to the invention. 
     FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the writing instrument with beads shown in FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of a second embodiment of the writing instrument of this invention; 
     FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a further embodiment of the present invention, utilized as a pencil; 
    
    
     Corresponding reference characters identify corresponding elements throughout the several views of the drawings. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring to FIGS. 1-2 of the drawings, a first embodiment of a writing instrument of the invention is designated A, and includes a writing member  10 , a nib socket or front socket  20 , a cap or end socket  22 , an aft socket  24  and a plurality of rotatable indicia  30 . 
     The writing member  10  provides the invention with a means of writing, and can be an ink cartridge, a pencil, a crayon or other writing implement such as a fluorescent marker or the like. In embodiment A of the present invention, writing member  10  is a well-known ballpoint pen having a cylindrical tubular ink reservoir. FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment where the writing member  10  is a pencil. 
     Indicia  30  are, in essence, bead members of various geometric shapes including spheres, cubes, cylindrical discs, and fanciful shapes including hearts, and well-known shapes of objects such as footballs, basketballs, golfballs and the like. The indicia are preferably made of plastic; however, it will be readily apparent that many other substances with long-wearing properties, such as wood, metal, closed cell foam, ceramics, etc., can be readily substituted. Each of the rotatable indicia  30  is provided with an identical axial through-hole or bore  32  for assembling on the writing member  10  between said nib socket  20  and said aft socket  24 , as is more fully discussed below. 
     As shown in FIG. 1, those indicia  30  shaped as cube have four exterior surfaces, designated  34 . It is conceivable that the exterior surfaces  34  of a number of indicia  30  will be provided with letters of the alphabet or numbers arranged to spell a message, theme, or name. It is also envisioned that the exterior surfaces of indicia  30  will have pictorial representations of various animate and inanimate objects, symbols and logos. Similarly, the indicia can be arranged to display a symbolic message. Those indicia of spherical or ovular shape may have disposed about their surface circumference a variety of letters, numbers, symbols, logos, etc. 
     Nib socket  20  is fitted about the head  12  of writing member  10  and provides an initial gripping surface for the writing instrument A As shown in FIG. 2, end socket  22  is fitted about the nib socket  20  to cover the nib or writing end  14  of writing member  10 . A plurality of the rotatable indicia  30  are then fitted about the ink cartridge  16  of writing member  10  in a number so as to sufficiently cover the ink cartridge  16 . Aft socket  24  is then fitted to end  18  of writing member  10  so as to fully enclose ink cartridge  16  to prevent accidental blotting or spilling of the ink contained therein. The head  12  of writing member  10  may be smooth (FIG. 2) for a glue or a friction fit with the nib socket  20 . Likewise, the end  18  of writing member  10  may be smooth (FIG. 2) for a glue or a friction fit with the aft socket  24 . 
     Indicia  30  can be provided of various sizes depending upon the words, symbol, logo or message to be conveyed. Similarly, a variety indicia  30  with blank exterior surface can be used to act as spacing between multiple words or character symbols. As noted above, certain indicia  30   a  can be fashioned as fanciful shapes, such as hearts, to act as words, namely “love,” as shown in FIG.  1 . Indicia  30  can also take the form of other well-known shapes, such as footballs, baseballs and golf balls to emphasize a product of the vendor or a theme. 
     Indicia  30 , when arranged about writing member  10 , act to form a second gripping surface for the writing instrument A. The shape and size of indicia  30 , and their ability to rotate about the writing member  10 , provide comfort and an ergonomically pleasing effect to the user. The rotatability of indicia  30  about writing member  10  also provides amusement to the user. 
     FIG. 3 shows a variation of the writing instrument previously herein described. As shown in this figure, writing instrument A′ includes a nib socket  40  having a nib or writing end  42  of an ink cartridge and a flat base section  44 . Base section  44  can be provided with a threaded vertical bore  46  which is adapted to threadably engage a threaded rod section  50  as is hereinafter more fully described. 
     Writing instrument A′ also includes a rod section  50  and a plurality of rotatable shaped indicia  60  and  62 . Rod section  50  further includes a first threaded end  52 , a second threaded end  54  and an aft socket  56 . Rotatable indicia  60  and  62  are each provided with a bore  64 . Exterior surfaces  66  of indicia  60  and  62  are provided with letters, numbers, or designs as hereinbefore more fully described. Adapted for placement over writing end  42  is cap  68  which may further be provided with a pocket clip member  70 . It should be noted that the use of the terms “first” and “second” herein is for identification purposes and not for specifying a particular order or sequence. 
     Writing instrument A′ is assembled by first placing a sufficient number of rotatable indicia  60  and  62  in an arranged design so as to form an appropriate display onto rod section  50  and then threadably engaging threaded end  52  and threaded bore  46  by inserting rod section  50  into base section  44 . Although the threaded end  54  may be threadably engaged with a threaded bore (not shown) of the aft socket  56  prior to the placement of the indicia  60  and  62  onto the rod section  50 , such is not required. Alternatively, the threaded end  54  may be threadably engaged with the aft socket  56  after the placement of the indicia  60  and  62  onto the rod section  50  and after the engagement of the threaded end  52  with the bore  46 . In other embodiments, the rod section  50  may be integral with or fixedly attached to the aft socket  56  thereby eliminating the step of engaging the rod section  50  with the aft socket  56 . 
     There are many variations in the construction of writing instrument A′. For example, the ink cartridge within the nib socket  40  can be adapted to accept ball pen or fountain pen ink and writing end  42  can be a ballpoint or fountain pen nib. Base section bore  46  can be threaded for threadable engagement or smooth for glue or a friction fit insertion of the rod section  50 . Similarly, rod section  50  can be plastic, wood or metal. 
     FIG. 4 shows an alternative embodiment of the present invention, designated as B, where the writing member  10  is a pencil. Nib socket  20  is fitted over writing member  10  near its writing end  14 . Indicia  30  are then threaded onto writing instrument  10  from cap end  18  in sufficient number to spell or depict the desired message. Aft socket  24  is then fitted over end  18  (not shown) of writing instrument  10  to retain indicia  30  about writing instrument  10  and, alternatively, to retain an eraser  26 . 
     In view of the foregoing description of the present invention and various embodiments and methods, it will be seen that the several objects of the invention are achieved and other advantages are attained. 
     The embodiment which has been described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable others skilled in the arts to best utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. 
     As various modifications could be made in the construction and methods herein described and illustrated without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the foregoing description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative rather limiting.