Mop apparatus assembly

A mop apparatus assembly having receptor teeth, and a handle member screwed into the socket. A sponge pick-up head member is carried by the base member by being gripped by the receptor teeth. Other details are shown and described.

I. FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to cleaning apparatus, and more particularly, 
mop apparatus in the form of a manual tool. 
More particularly the invention relates to and provides a mop assembly of 
special form and nature which is especially useful and convenient for the 
cleaning of floors, shelves, walls, windows and other surfaces, both 
residential and commercial buildings being usefully and conveniently 
cleaned by the mop apparatus. 
The mop assembly is particularly useful in cleaning surfaces which contain 
corners or other similar features which are not easily cleanable by 
conventional mops. 
II. PROBLEMS INHERENT IN PROVIDING CLEANING APATUS NEED FOR A VARIETY OF 
TASKS 
Problems which are inherent in the provision of mop tools are solved by the 
present invention. 
For example, most surfaces of both residential and commercial structures 
contain corners and other "tight" or irregular areas or regions; and 
conventional mops are not fully satisfactory in being able to achieve 
thorough cleansing of such spaces or areas. 
Also, many mop tools are not convenient with respect to the provision of 
the way that a sponge pick-up unit is easily attached to the tool, for 
easy attachment and easy removal, as must be done fairly often in order to 
attain a thorough cleaning task, and avoiding the use of a dirty mop. 
Limitations of storage usually available generally require easy of assembly 
and disassembly. 
Economy goals make desirable a feature of ease of interchange of the sponge 
pick-up unit. 
Another problem of many conventional mop tools is that they are of a fixed 
length, such that they are inconveniently used on many surfaces which are 
not readily accessable to the use of the tool. 
III. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
In the preferred form of this invention, the mop assembly comprises a base 
member having along both of its sides a set of inwardly facing receptor 
teeth, and an upwardly open socket member on its upper surface for 
receiving a handle member which is fixed to the base member's socket. 
A sponge pick-up head member is gripped along both of its sides by the sets 
of teeth, and the receptor teeth and the sponge pick-up head member are of 
coordinated size and shape such that the sponge pick-up head member must 
be partially folded to permit it to be placed against the bottom of the 
base member by an installation movement of the sponge pick-up head member 
by which the sponge pick-up member passes the sets of receptor teeth. 
Preferably as shown, the sponge member and the base member are shaped to 
provide a pointed forward end of the assembly of the base member and the 
sponge pick-up head member. 
The Drawings illustrate other desired features, as described further in the 
text. 
IV. PRIOR ART CAPABILITY AND MOTIVATIONS, AS HELPING TO SHOW PATENTABILITY 
HERE 
In hindsight consideration of the present invention to determine its 
inventive and novel nature, it is not only conceded but emphasized that 
the prior art had details usable in this invention, but only if the prior 
art had had the guidance of the present concepts of the present invention, 
details of both capability and motivation. 
That is, it is emphasized that the prior art had or knew several 
particulars which individually and accumulatively help to show the 
non-obviousness of this combination invention. E.g., 
a. The prior art has long had mop devices of various kinds; 
b. The prior art has long known of the unending need for mop apparatus; 
c. The prior art has long included millions of persons, the world over, as 
being persons who personally have used and seen mops and the need for 
mops; 
d. The prior art has long realized the need for utility devices, including 
mops, to be convenient in all details of their use; 
e. The prior art has long known of the desirability to make improvements in 
utility devices including mops; 
f. The prior art of the mop and utility industries has surely supposed or 
known that many customers and prospective customers would be willing to 
purchase a mop which achieved greater convenience to the user; 
g. Mops are of such negligible cost that large sales would be realistically 
expected as to most residential and commercial cleaning situations; 
h. The relative ease of manufacture and relative simplicity of mops have 
surely given their manufacturers ample incentive to have made 
modifications for commercial competitiveness in competitive industry with 
huge sales prospects reasonably expectable; 
i. The prior art has always had sufficient skill to make many types of mops 
and apparatus for mops, more than ample skill to have achieved the present 
invention, but only if the concepts and their combinations had been 
conceived; 
j. Substantially all of the operational characteristics and advantages of 
details of the present invention, when considered separately from one 
another and when considered separately from the present invention's 
details and accomplishment of the details, are within the skill of persons 
of various arts, but only when considered away from the integrated and 
novel combination of concepts which by their cooperative combination 
achieves this advantageous invention; 
k. The details of the present invention, when considered solely from the 
standpoint of construction, are relatively simple, and the matter of 
simplicity of construction has long been recognized as indicative of 
inventive creativity; 
l. The components of this mop assembly are makable by machinery and 
manufacturing facilities of most industrial enterprises, large and small; 
m. The manufacture of these mop assemblies could be without assembly of 
components, minimizing cost, yet the assembly would be easily within the 
skill of most purchasers; and 
n. Similarly, and a long-recognized indication of inventiveness of a novel 
combination, is the realistic principle that a person of ordinary skill in 
the art, as illustrated with respect to the claimed combination as 
differing in the stated respects from the prior art both as to 
construction and concept, is that the person of ordinary skill in the art 
is presumed to be one who thinks along the line of conventional wisdom in 
the art and is not one who undertakes to innovate. 
Accordingly, although the prior art has had capability and motivation, 
amply sufficient to presumably give incentive to the development of 
specialized mop apparatus according to the present invention, the fact 
remains that the present invention awaited the creativity and inventive 
discovery of the present inventor. In spite of ample motivation and 
capability shown by the illustrations herein, the prior art did not 
suggest this invention. 
V. PRIOR ART AS TICULAR INSTANCES OF FAILURE TO PROVIDE ADVANTAGEOUS 
COMBINATION KIT OR ASSEMBLY OF A MOP PROVIDING ADVANTAGES HEREOF 
In view of the inherent possibility of a combination device of the nature 
and advantage of the one of this invention, it is particularly significant 
that the prior art's continuing development has not achieved the present 
invention. Further, the persons of sufficient knowledge and skill to have 
achieved this combination surely include a multitude of manufacturers and 
users of mop devices and corresponding swabbing procedures, such that this 
combination invention would have come about if its concepts had been 
obvious. 
Widely known prior art known to the inventor includes mops of string and/or 
rag type, sponge and/or squeegee, etc., and developments through the years 
have included various types of wring-out apparatus and other ways to clean 
the debris off the pick-up or head assembly; and most if not all of the 
long-continuing and diverse developments have been in recognition of the 
very problems of convenience, handiness and thoroughness of cleaning 
effort which are expressly the goals whose challenge is advantageously 
fulfilled by the present invention. 
VI. SUMMARY OF THE PRIOR ART'S LACK SUGGESTIONS OF THE CONCEPTS OF THE 
INVENTION'S COMBINATION 
In spite of all such factors of the prior art, the problem here solved 
awaited this inventor's present creativity. More particularly as to the 
novelty here of the invention as considered as a whole, the candid 
reference to the prior art uses and needs helps to show its contrast to 
the present concepts, and emphasizes the advantages, novelty, and the 
inventive significance of the present concepts as are here shown, 
particularly as to utility, economy and convenience of use as detailed 
herein. 
Moreover, prior art articles known to this inventor which could possibly be 
adapted for this duty fail to show or suggest the details of the present 
concepts as a combination; and a realistic consideration of the prior 
art's differences from the present concepts of the overall combination may 
more aptly be described as teaching away from the present invention's 
concepts, in contrast to suggesting them, even as to a hindsight attempt 
to perceive suggestions from a backward look into the prior art, 
especially since the prior art has long had much motivation as to details 
of the present invention and to its provisions. 
And the existence of such prior art knowledge and related articles 
embodying such various features is not only conceded, it is emphasized; 
for as to the novelty here of the combination, of the invention as 
considered as a whole, a contrast to the prior art helps also to remind 
both the variety of the various prior art articles and needed attempts of 
improvement, and the advantages and the inventive significance of the 
present concepts. Thus, as shown herein as a contrast to all the prior 
art, the inventive significance of the present concepts as a combination 
is emphasized, and the nature of the concepts and their results can 
perhaps be easier seen as an invention. 
Although varieties of prior art are conceded, and ample motivation is 
shown, and full capability in the prior art is conceded, no prior art 
shows or suggests details of the overall combination of the present 
invention, as is the proper and accepted way of considering the 
inventiveness nature of the concepts. 
That is, although the prior art may show an approach to the overall 
invention, it is determinatively significant that none of the prior art 
shows the novel and advantageous concepts in combination, which provides 
the merits of this invention, even though certain details are shown 
separately from this accomplishment as a combination. 
And the prior art's lack of an invention of a handy and convenient mop 
assembly or kit which achieves the useful advantages and helpfulness to 
the cleaning operator of the present invention, which are goals only 
approached by the prior art, must be recognized as being a long-felt need 
now fulfilled. 
Accordingly, the various concepts and components are conceded and 
emphasized to have been widely known in the prior art as to various 
devices; nevertheless, the prior art not having had the particular 
combination of concepts and details as here presented and shown in novel 
combination different from the prior art and its suggestions, even only a 
fair amount of realistic humility to avoid consideration of this invention 
improperly by hindsight, requires the concepts and achievements here to be 
realistically viewed as a novel combination, inventive in nature. And 
especially is this a realistic consideration when viewed from the position 
of a person of ordinary skill in this art at the time of this invention, 
and without trying to reconstruct this invention from the prior art 
without use of hindsight toward particulars not suggested by the prior art 
.

VIII. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
As shown in the Drawings, the concepts provide a novel and advantageous mop 
apparatus in the form of an assembly 10. As most completely shown in FIG. 
1, the apparatus 10 comprises only four basic features, as now described; 
but they cooperate to provide this mop 10 of handy and novel nature. 
There is provided a base member 12 having opposed sides 14/16; and the base 
member 12 has along each of its sides 14/16 a set of inwardly facing 
receptor teeth 18. The base member 12 has an upwardly open socket member 
20 on its upper surface 22. 
For manipulation of the apparatus 10, there is provided a handle member 24 
which is affixable to the base member 12 by releasable engagement with the 
socket member 20. 
For the operativity of wetting the associated surface to be cleaned, and to 
soak up the dirty water from the surface, there is provided a sponge 
pick-up head member 26 which is to be carried by the base member 12; and 
as shown the sponge head member 26 is operatively and releasably gripped 
along both of its sides 28/30 by the respective sets of receptor teeth 18. 
Sets 18 and the sponge pick-up head member 26 are of coordinated size and 
shape, i.e., coordinated such that the sponge pick-up head member 26 must 
be partially folded to permit it to be placed against the bottom of the 
base member 12 by an installation movement of the sponge pick-up head 
member 26 by which it passes the sets of receptor teeth 18. Correspondily, 
the sponge member 26 is to be partially folded to permit it to be removed 
from the teeth 18 and the base member 12. 
In describing the pick-up head member 26 as a "sponge", the word "sponge" 
is used in a broadly descriptive sense of a natural or artificial body 
which has the characteristics of being able to be easily resiliently 
deformed, quite porous and bendable, and operative by a squeezing effort 
to be both bent and to perform a sponge-like duty in carrying the 
cleansing liquid and serving as a multi-chamber "pick-up" pump. 
The apparatus 10 in its preferred form has other features of advantage, 
which add to the cooperative combination by which the apparatus 10 is 
achieved. 
For example, as shown, the socket member 20 and the handle member 24 are 
made releasably engageable by screw threads 32 which are shown as 
cooperatively provided on both the handle member 24 and the socket member 
20. 
Further as to the handle member 24 and socket member 20 and base member 12, 
especially as shown in FIG. 4, the socket member 20 is provided to be on 
an axis 34 such that when the handle member 24 is affixed to the socket 
member 20 the handle member 24 extends as indicated by reference number 38 
about 60.degree. from the plane of the base member 12. 
A special advantage of the apparatus 10 in its preferred form is the 
ability to access and accommodate thorough cleaning of surfaces meeting in 
a corner; and providing this advantage the forward end 40 of the sponge 
pick-up head member 26 and the forward end 42 of the base member 12 are 
shaped to provide a pointed forward end 40/42 of the assembly of the base 
member 12 and the sponge pick-up head member 26. 
For further advantage and utility, the sponge pick-up head member 26 is 
preferably to be of differing texture on its upper and lower faces, 
providing for the user's optional choice of operativity in use, by 
selection of one or the other of the faces of the sponge pick-up head 
member 26 to be exposed in installation of the assembly 10. 
Further advantage of the combination, as schematically noted in FIG. 1, the 
handle member 24 is provided to be of telescoping nature 44, giving the 
user the optional choice of length of the handle member 24 during use of 
the assembly 10. 
The assembly 10 further takes advantage of sponge nature of the pick-up 
head 26 as being formed of resiliently deformable material. More 
particularly, this nature permits that it may be of a relatively greater 
dimension for being gripped by the receptor teeth 18 (See FIGS. 3 & 5) and 
of relatively lesser dimension (by folding) permitting it to be released 
from the teeth 18. Of the two forms of receptor teeth 18 to show the 
concepts, the inventor prefers the form more like the teeth 18 shown in 
FIG. 5; although the inventive concepts are not limited to a precise 
geometrical formation of the components. 
Economy is preferably provided by making the base member 12, the socket 20, 
and the receptor teeth sets 18 to be provided as integral components of 
the assembly. 
IX. CONCLUSION AS TO INVENTIVE COMBINATION 
It is thus seen that a special mop device, formed according to the 
combination of inventive concepts and details herein set forth, provides 
novel concepts of a desirable and usefully advantageous article, yielding 
advantages which are and which provide special and particular advantages 
when used for a mop device particularly advantageous for general and 
specialized mop duties, such as, e.g., a utility mop for handy and 
convenient use in hospitality/healthcare facilities for floor and wall 
cleaning, more convenient, handy, and environmentally safe than other 
mops. 
In summary as to the nature of the overall mop device's advantageous 
concepts, their novelty and inventive combination is shown by novel 
features of concept and procedure shown here in advantageous combination 
and by the novel combinations hereof not only being different from all 
prior art known, even though many other mop devices of conventional and 
specialized types have been known and used for scores of years, but 
because the achievement is not what is or has been suggested to those of 
ordinary skill in the art, especially realistically considering this as a 
novel combination comprising components which individually are similar in 
nature to what is well known to most all persons, surely including most of 
the many makers and users of mop devices for a great number of years 
throughout the entire world. No prior art component or element has even 
suggested the modifications of any other prior art to achieve the 
particulars of the novel concepts of the overall combination here 
achieved, with the special advantages which the overall combination 
article provides; and this lack of suggestion by any prior art has been in 
spite of the long worldwide use of various types of mop devices. 
The differences of concept, of construction and procedure, yield advantages 
over the prior art; and the lack of this invention by the prior art, as an 
inventive combination, has been in spite of this invention's apparent 
simplicity of the construction once the concepts have been conceived, in 
spite of the advantages it would have given, and in spite of the 
availability of all of the materials to all persons of the entire world, 
and the invention's relatively non-technical and openly-visible nature. 
Quite certainly this particular combination of prior art details as here 
presented in this overall combination has not been suggested by the prior 
art, this achievement in its particular details and utility being a 
substantial and advantageous departure from prior art, even though the 
prior art has had somewhat similar components separately for numbers of 
years. 
Particularly is the overall difference from the prior art significant when 
the non-obviousness is viewed by a consideration of the subject matter of 
this overall device as a whole, as a combination integrally incorporating 
features different in their combination from the prior art, in contrast to 
merely separate details themselves, and further in view of the prior art 
of mop device articles not achieving particular advantages here achieved 
by this combination. 
Accordingly, it will thus be seen from the foregoing description of the 
invention according to the illustrative embodiment, considered with the 
accompanying Drawings, that the present invention provides new and useful 
concepts of a novel and advantageous article, possessing and yielding 
desired advantages and characteristics in formation and use, and 
accomplishing the intended objects including those hereinbefore pointed 
out and others which are inherent in the invention. 
Modifications and variations may be effected without departing from the 
scope of the novel concepts of the invention; accordingly, the invention 
is not limited to the specific embodiment, or form or arrangement of parts 
herein described or shown.