Abstract:
A carrying handle for bags provided with handles includes a body part having a surface portion adapted as a hand grip, additional lateral surface means to support the handles of a bag so that the bag is oriented transversely relative to the body part, and locating means for the bag on the carrier handle. The locating means includes retaining means whereby the bag can be releasably retained on the carrying handle.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]    This application is a continuation of international application PCT/GB00/03654 filed Sep. 22, 2000. 
     
    
     
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    The present invention relates to a carrying handle or device for providing comfort and assistance in the carrying of plastic shopping bags and the like, and for use with a variety of other shopping bags and the like.  
           [0003]    It is an accepted fact that shoppers can experience difficulty and discomfort in the carrying of a number of plastic shopping bags, particularly when they are heavily laden with groceries and liquid containers, such as form a normal part of everyday shopping. This problem is particularly prevalent with pedestrian shoppers, but even where shopping is purchased by car from large scale supermarkets and out-of-town shopping centres, large numbers of plastic or other bags require to be carried from the check out point to the car park, and from the car boot into the house, often over considerable distances.  
           [0004]    A particular aspect of the problem is where a number of plastic shopping bags are heavily laden, thus casing the plastic handles to become partially stretched and to cut into the fingers and hands of the shopper carrying them. An additional problem occurs when a number of full bags require to be carried in each hand, as they tend to spread out horizontally and brush against the shopper&#39;s legs, thus impeding normal progress. This causes discomfort to the shopper, as the heavy bags press against the legs, or alternatively, the shopper requires to carry the bags with arms held out from the body, thus adding strain and discomfort to the arms.  
           [0005]    A number of attempts have been made to overcome these problems, by providing a special carrying handle which distributes the load of the shopping bags evenly over the fingers, thus preventing the handles of the bags from cutting into the fingers. However, these prior art handles do not overcome all of the problems identified, for a number of reasons. Typically, a handle has a single longitudinal recess to accommodate the handles of the shopping bags, which are unrestrained, thus permitting the bag handles to fall out when the shopping is put down. In addition, the recess is typically aligned parallel to the direction of travel of the shopper, so that when several bags are carried in the handle they bulk out at right angles to the direction of travel and cause discomfort by pressing against the legs.  
           [0006]    Examples of these special carrying handles are described in GB-A-2132882 and GB-A-2147200. The carrying handles of these patent specifications comprise an elongate body part adapted to be carried by the hand and including a longitudinal channel having a curved bottom support surface for the handles of one and possibly more bags. These carrying handles have the advantage of being compact especially that of GB-A-2132882, so being conveniently carried, when not in use, but they have the disadvantage that where a number (bundle) of bags are to be carried, some of the carried bags can adopt an unsatisfactory orientation, in addition to the drawback of the bag bundle being awkward to carry (these are also problems where no special carrying handle is used); therefore strictly only two bags can be satisfactorily carried using these handles. GB-A-2123280 reduces this problem to a significant degree by employing two separate side-by-side longitudinal channels but on the other hand the handle of GB-A-2123280 has the disadvantage of being relatively bulky and not at all conveniently carried when not in use. The handles of the above mentioned prior patent specifications utilise tabs or straps as handle retaining means.  
         BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0007]    It is an object of the present invention to provide a carrier handle obviating or mitigating at least some of the above mentioned drawbacks and disadvantages.  
           [0008]    Therefore, according to the present invention a carrying handle for bags provided with handles, comprises a body part having a surface portion adapted as a hand grip, additional lateral surface means to support the handles of a bag so that the bag is orientated transversely relative to the body part, and locating means for the bag on the carrier handle, said locating means including retaining means whereby the bag can be releasably retained on the carrier handle. Preferably the lateral surface means are arranged such that a plurality of bags can be carried transversely by the carrier handle, a plurality of individual locating means being provided for the handles of respective bags being carried transversely, in a line parallel to the direction of travel, thus providing lifting and carrying of the handle in a natural and ergonomic position, with elimination of transverse bulking of the bags causing discomfort by rubbing against the legs.  
           [0009]    The body part can include two indented longitudinally extending spaced walls, said lateral surface portion extending between facing indents in the longitudinal walls, said locating means comprising facing wall surfaces of individual indents while the retainment means is provided by an upper throating or necking in the indent.  
           [0010]    This enables a device of the present invention to not only support a bag, or bags (such as plastic shopping bags or the like having paired handle apertures formed in facing planar sheet members of the bag), thus reducing or eliminating the discomfort experienced by the user, but also retaining the handles of the bags captive within the carrying device so that they are securely retained whilst walking with the bags. This increases the user&#39;s comfort. A further advantage is provided in that when a number of bags are laid down, for example in the boot of a car, the handles of the bags are held captive by the device, thus making it easier to retrieve the collection of bags and handle when required. This is in contrast to other, conventional carrying handles (see EP-A-0323 944) where the handles of the bags are not so restrained and fall out of the carrying device when laid down, thus requiring additional time and effort in re-assembling the bags and handle. In addition to this, where the bag handles are not so restrained or held captive, the contents of the bag may spill out when the bags are laid down, which problem does not occur within the present invention.  
           [0011]    Preferably, a plurality of retaining means are provided.  
           [0012]    Preferably, the retaining means are designed to hold captive or retain the handles of plastic shopping bags and the like.  
           [0013]    Preferably, also adjacent retaining means are spaced along the long axis of the handle, thus enabling several bags to be carried simultaneously, ranged in a direction parallel to the direction of travel. This permits the hand to be held in a natural carrying position, without requiring rotation, and eliminates the problem of the bags bulking up against the legs and impeding progress.  
           [0014]    Preferably, each retaining means comprises a pair of matching recesses facing each other and formed in the body of the handle. Preferably, each recess has a narrow throating or neck portion above a wider body portion, in order to hold captive or retain the handles of the shopping bags while accepting a number of handles in each recess, if necessary.  
           [0015]    Preferably, each recess has smooth radiused edges in order to avoid cutting or wearing away of the shopping bag handles, and also to facilitate insertion and withdrawal of the shopping bags into and from the device.  
           [0016]    Preferably, the body comprises a pair of parallel walls disposed longitudinally along the top of the handle. Preferably, also the recesses are formed in the walls.  
           [0017]    Preferably, also the recesses are formed in pairs, with one of each pair being formed in each wall and directly opposite each other.  
           [0018]    Preferably, a central longitudinal recess is formed between the longitudinal walls.  
           [0019]    Preferably, the longitudinal recess is dimensioned to accommodate handles.  
           [0020]    In a preferred embodiment, the longitudinal recess is dimensioned to retain a pair of rigid handles such as are found in supermarket shopping baskets. This enables the device to be used to support shopping baskets in supermarkets and the like, which is a further source of discomfort for shoppers due to the narrow gauge of the handles, which makes them difficult to hold firmly. The preferred embodiment therefore provides a “dual purpose” in that it supports both plastic shopping bags and the like, and also supports supermarket shopping baskets and the like. In a further embodiment, the handle may also be used to protect the fingers in uses where ropes or the like are pulled through hands, such as in sailing, and also where sheet materials, possibly with sharp or uneven edges are carried in the hands, with the ropes or sheet materials being accommodated within the longitudinal top recess in the handle, which provides both protection and restraint.  
           [0021]    Preferably the handle or device has a plurality of finger grips on the underside, most preferably four, designed to fit a normal hand size, and variably dimensioned to fit a variety of hand and finger sizes to provide male and female sized handles, if required.  
           [0022]    Thus the hand grip can be of scalloped form to facilitate secure bag carrying, with shoulders of the scallop aligning with indents in said longitudinal walls: by this arrangement the fingers of the carrying hand can locate conveniently between the handles of adjacent bags on the carrier handle. The hand grip can be formed on a bottom surface of the body part while the indented longitudinal walls are on the top of the body part: this provides a very compact carrier handle.  
           [0023]    The handles of a bag can be pushed past the indent necking of the respective support slot resulting in the bag handles being releasably retained in the indent recesses.  
           [0024]    In a further preferred embodiment, the handle incorporates lettering along the base of the longitudinal recess, which may be embossed, recessed or otherwise applied, and which may be varied to provide a number of different logos or the like.  
           [0025]    In a further preferred embodiment, the handle may incorporate personification in the form of a smiling face or other design on both sides of one end, to make it attractive and collectable to children. In a further preferred embodiment, the handle may be enlarged to provide five pairs of recesses along the walls of the longitudinal recess, with a personification design applied to both faces of one end as before. This embodiment is designated as a “monster grippi”.  
           [0026]    In a further preferred embodiment, the handle has four finger recesses formed along the bottom side and aligned so that each finger recess is located to one side of the corresponding pair of bag handle recesses in the walls of the top longitudinal channel. This arrangement permits the fingers to be inserted into the finger recesses between the plastic or other bag handles held captive in the upper recesses so that a number of bags may be carried comfortably, with the bag handles between the fingers, and in a row parallel to the direction of travel, which permits lifting and carrying of the bags in a natural, ergonomic manner.  
           [0027]    The body part is preferably of plastics material. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0028]    Embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 1 is a side view of a carrying handle in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 2 shows the section A-A of FIG. 1;  
         [0031]    [0031]FIG. 3 shows the section B-B of FIG. 1; and  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 4 shows a side view of a further embodiment. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0033]    Referring to FIGS.  1  to  3 , a carrying handle  1  facilitates the carrying of a number of plastics shopping bags (only the handle BH thereof illustrated) but is useable with suitable both bags and items, for example the rarer paper bags with string handles. The handle  1  comprises an elongate body  2  moulded from suitable plastics material, and the moulding is such as to provide a scalloped bottom portion  3  to provide finger grips, the recesses  3 A (four present) of the bottom scalloped part being of a size to comfortably receive the user&#39;s fingers F for a certain hand size range, but different models of handle  1  can be provided to cater for a wider range of hand sizes, e.g. ladies and gents.  
         [0034]    The upper part of the elongate body  2  includes two spaced longitudinal walls  4 ,  5  each having a series of indents  4 A,  5 A,  4 B,  5 B etc. arranged so that facing indent pairs  4 A/ 5 A,  4 B/ 5 B etc. are formed, a bag support surface  6  being present between the walls  4 ,  5  so as to provide lateral support surface portions  6 A,  6 B etc. between respective indent pairs  4 A/ 5 A,  4 B/ 5 B etc. Each indent consequently provides opposing wall surfaces  7 , B for location of a bag handle BH. Therefore, a series of bags can be carried in a transverse manner by the handle  1 , by locating the respective bag handles BH in the slot between the respective indent pair  4 A/ 5 A etc. so as to be supported by the relevant lateral support surface portion  6 A/ 6 B etc. To enable the bag handle BH to be releasably retained in their slots, the top part  9  of each indent is necked or throated, the handle BH being inserted and removed from its slot by a certain manageable force. The indents  4 A,  4 B etc. on each wall  4 ,  5  are suitably spaced (S) and this, along with the transverse support of the bag, considerably conveniences the carrying of a number of bags. Also, shoulders  3 B of the scalloped bottom part  3  align with relevant indent pairs  4 A/ 5 A etc. and this enables the user&#39;s fingers F to locate between the handles BH of adjacent bags for increased ease of use.  
         [0035]    Edges of the handle  1  are suitably radiused R for improved comfort for the user and also to provide more satisfactory support for the bag handles BH. The surface  6 , preferably also of curved form, may also serve to support a bag handle (BH 1 ) in longitudinal manner and this may be preferred when only a single bag is to be carried. Further, the recess of the longitudinal surface  6  can be dimensioned, in particular have sufficient width, to retain a pair of rigid handles such as for example those of supermarket shopping baskets and the like. These basket handles, normally of wire material, are of a relatively narrow gauge which tends to make them difficult to hold and also uncomfortable to use, especially when the basket is heavily laden. Retaining means, for example in the form of further throating or necking can be provided at the longitudinal walls  4 ,  5  for releasable retainment of the basket handles and the like in the longitudinal recess. As will be appreciated, the carrying handle  1 , will find many further subsidiary uses, for example to receive ropes and the like which, for example are normally pulled through the hand such as in sailing, and the carrying handle, can also be useful in the carrying of sheet material, especially when this material has sharp or uneven edges.  
         [0036]    As can be seen, the handle  1  can be of very compact size for storage in a pocket or handbag in readiness for use.  
         [0037]    It may be preferred that the body  2  includes a longitudinal recess  10 , with at least part of the surface  6  formed by an insert strip  11  located in this recess  10 . This strip  11  can carry a logo  12 , for example the trade mark of the device or again a grocers name or logo which may be especially desired if the grocer is providing the device to customers as a complimentary item.  
         [0038]    The embodiment of FIG. 4 is similar to that of FIG. 1 but in this case the handle  1  includes an increased number of bag handle receiving slots. As can be seen in the above carrier handle  1  (of both embodiments) lends itself to fashioning as a novelty.