Abstract:
Penants or flags of various sizes and shapes have holders that are designed to fasten the pennants to car antennas, on pencils, or any other desirable flagpole. One version of the pennant holder has self-adjusting flaps that adapt to various sizes and shapes of flagpoles, such as car antennas, for example. Another version of a pennant holder is designed to clip on to and hold a pennant to a small pole, like a pencil or pen.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates generally to improvements in pennant mounting structures and more specifically pertains to new and improved pennant holders which are adapted for mounting on a variety of small poles.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Prior Art  
         [0004]     In the field of pennant mounting structures for the display of affinity pennants, it has been a practice to employ pennants that are permanently attached to a shaft or flagpole. To the extent some mounting structures may be removable from the shaft, such mounting structures are designed for a particular type of flagpole. These devices have been unsatisfactory because the mounting structures have been inflexible in terms of where they could be mounted, such as on automobile antennas or other small poles such as pencils, for example.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     The present invention overcomes these shortcomings by providing a pole holder in the shape of a cylinder having a closed end, with the closed end being slit to form flaps that permit the pole to pass through the closed end and be grasped by the flaps. The pole holder has an integral receiving clip which is adapted to receive a pennant attachment made of two mating halves that grasp the pennant between them. In an alternate embodiment, the pole holder in the shape of a cylinder has both ends open and a slit along the length of the cylinder. A pennant attachment is formed integral with the slit cylinder. The pennant attachment has two mating parts that interfit and grasp the pennant between the two halves. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0006]     The objects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art as the invention becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the figures thereof and wherein:  
         [0007]      FIG. 1  is a front plan view of a preferred embodiment of the invention.  
         [0008]      FIG. 2  is a top plan view of the embodiment shown in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0009]      FIG. 3  is a bottom plan view of the embodiment shown in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0010]      FIG. 4  is a partial plan view partly in section, showing a portion of the structure of the embodiment of  FIG. 1 .  
         [0011]      FIG. 5  is an assembly drawing of the embodiment shown in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0012]      FIG. 6  is a cross-section of the embodiment of  FIG. 1 .  
         [0013]      FIG. 7  is a partial top plan view of one of the elements of the embodiment of  FIG. 5 .  
         [0014]      FIG. 8  is a section taken along line  8 - 8  of  FIG. 7  looking in the direction of the arrows.  
         [0015]      FIG. 9  is a front plan view of a second embodiment.  
         [0016]      FIG. 10  is a side plan view of the embodiment of  FIG. 9  without the pole.  
         [0017]      FIG. 11  is an assembly drawing showing the parts of the embodiment of  FIG. 9 .  
         [0018]      FIG. 12  is a top plan view of the embodiment shown in  FIG. 9 , without the pole.  
         [0019]      FIG. 13  is a partial cross-section of the embodiment of  FIG. 9 . 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0020]     A preferred embodiment of a pennant holder  11  according to the present invention is shown in  FIG. 1 , holding a pennant  15  and attached to a small pole  13 , which is preferably an automobile antenna. The pennant holder  11  is made of a plurality of parts. A pair of cylinders  17  and  19 , shown in  FIGS. 1-4 , are made out of a flexible plastic material and function to hold the pole  13 . A top end of the pole holder  19  has slits  29  for creating four flaps. Each pole holder  17  and  19  also has an integral receiving clip  25 . Clip  25  receives a pennant attachment mechanism  21  which, as can be more clearly seen in  FIG. 5 , is made up of two mating parts  21   a  and  21   b  that come together to hold the pennant  15  along the entire length of the attachment end  46  of the pennant. The two halves  21   a  and  21   b  of the pennant attachment interlock by way of cleats  43  which pass through holes  45  in the attachment end of the pennant  15 , and are received by the other half  21   b  of the pennant attachment mechanism. Once the pennant is firmly between the two halves  21   a  and  21   b  of the pennant attachment  21 , it is inserted into the clips  25  of pole holders  19  and  17 .  
         [0021]     Although two separate pole holders  19  and  17  have been described for holding the pennant attachment mechanism  21  and attaching to the pole  13 , it should be understood that one pole holder  19  longer in length than the pole holder shown in the drawings could be utilized. A single pole holder may also have both its top and bottom closed and slit to form flaps to grasp the antenna  13 .  
         [0022]      FIG. 4  illustrates how the antenna  13  is pushed through the pole holder cylinder  19  to displace the flaps  29  causing them to grab antenna  13  and hold the pennant  15  fast to the antenna  13 .  
         [0023]     The pennant  15  illustrated in the figures is shaped in the form of a baseball jersey with a team name and logo, and a player&#39;s name and number, for example. It should be understood that this type of affinity pennant can take many forms. In other words, many different kinds of sports jersey shapes may be used as the pennant, in addition to the traditional flag shape and triangular shape, which would also carry team logos, sponsors&#39; logos and other affinity indicia, as desired.  
         [0024]     The structure of the pole holders  17  and  19  of the preferred embodiment allow the pennant holder to be mounted on a variety of different diameter small poles because the flaps are self-adapting to varying diameters of poles that fit within the cylindrical space  27  of the pole holder  19 .  
         [0025]     The pennant holder of this preferred embodiment is specially adapted for withstanding the forces that are exerted on it as a result of being mounted on the antenna of a fast moving automobile. The two halves  21   a  and  21   b  of the pennant attachment  21  not only lock together by way of cleats  43  on half  21   a  fitting into slots  47  on half  21   b  of the pennant attachment, but it is preferred that a strong synthetic glue be applied between the two halves  21   a  and  21   b  after the pennant  15  is placed on the cleats  43  so that they pass through the apertures  45  in the attachment end  46  of the pennant. Once the two halves  21   a  and  21   b  are press fit and glued together, the pennant  15  is held firmly therebetween along the entire length  46  of the attachment, and the pennant attachment  21  then forms essentially a single structural unit.  
         [0026]     Pennant attachment  2   a  has a unique shape at its ends, as a result of ridges  31  and  33  at one end and ridges  35  and  37  at the other end. These ridges fit into the receiving slots  39  of the receiving clips  25  ( FIG. 7 ). Ridge  31 , for example, would fit into receiving slot  39  at the top portion of receiving clip  25 . Ridge  33  would fit into receiving slot  39   b  at the bottom portion of receiving clip  25 .  
         [0027]     The pennant attachment  21  is thus held structurally within receiving clips  25 . However, in the extreme environment of an automobile antenna, it is desirable to glue the ends of the pennant attachment  21  into the receiving clips  26  for the two pole holders  19  and  17 . Thus, as shown in  FIG. 6 , one end of the pennant attachment  21  with its ridges  31  and  33  is held fast within the slots  39  of pole holder  19  while the other end with ridges  35  and  37  are held fast within the slots  41  of pole holder  17 .  
         [0028]     Thus assembled, the pennant holder  11  is simply attached to the small pole  13 , in this case, an automobile antenna, by pushing it down over the antenna in the direction  23  as shown in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0029]      FIG. 9  illustrates an alternate embodiment of a pennant holder  55  designed for a less severe environment than that of an automobile antenna.  FIG. 9  illustrates a pennant holder for attachment to a shaft  57  which may be a pencil, for example. The pennant holder  55  includes a pole holder  59  that attaches to the pencil  57  and a pennant attachment  63 , which is integral with the pole holder  59 , and is designed to hold the pennant  61 .  
         [0030]     The pole holder  59  has a slit  60  along its length which may have varying widths. The slit illustrated in  FIG. 10 , for example, is shown as relatively wide, for ease of attachment to a pencil having a hexagonal shape, for example. As can be seen more clearly in  FIGS. 11 and 12 , the interior surface  75  of pole holder  59  is shaped to conform to the hexagonal shape of a pencil.  
         [0031]     The pennant  61  which is illustrated as a triangular flag is held by the pennant attachment  63  which has two parts  63   a  and  63   b . The  63   a  half is formed integral with pole holder  59 . It has a plurality of cleats  67  and  69  of different shapes that match and insert into recesses  71  and  73 , respectively, in the mating half  63   b  of the pennant attachment  63 . The pennant  61  has a plurality of apertures  65  that will allow the cleats  67  and  69  to pass there through. The pennant  61  may simply be held between the two halves  63   a  and  63   b  of the pennant attachment, as a result of the press fit between the cleats and apertures in the two halves. For a more robust structure, a synthetic glue should be applied.  
         [0032]     An assembled structure is illustrated from the top in  FIG. 12 . In order to maintain a firm grip on the pencil  57 , riser buttons  77  may be formed into the sides at the slit  60  of pole holder  59 .  
         [0033]     It should be recognized that the width of slit  60  may be reduced, thereby increasing the gripping force of the pole holder. In addition, the shape of the pennant  61  may be any shape, as discussed above, and is not confined to a triangular shape.