Telephone lock

The present invention provides an automatic lock for use on a telephone, and comprising a main body for securing to the phone, a slide member slideably mounted in the main body and a spring pressuring the slide member to automatically slide to a locking position over the post of the phone when depressed by the telephone handle to the down position. The slide member is manually slideable against the pressure of the spring away from the locking position to allow upward popping of the post with the slide member being reset to return to the locking position with further depressing of the post.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a lock for use in holding down the post of 
a telephone after the handset portion has been lifted from the phone. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
As almost all parents will appreciate, young children seem to have a 
fascination for playing with telephones which often results in the handset 
of the phone being removed so that the phone is in effect in a constant 
busy condition, tying up the phone line. In most cases the parents aren't 
aware of the the condition. 
Young children also have a tendency to play with the dial on the phone and 
actually inadvertently and undesirable place calls including long distance 
telephone calls from the phone. 
A number of prior patents have delt with this very problem. For example 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,623 issued Mar. 6th, 1984 to Valentine describes a 
telephone guard device, including sliding guard members to either side of 
the device to block the switch hook buttons on a phone in the down 
position. A somewhat similar device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 
3,124,664 issued Mar. 10th, 1984 to Beatty, and a further device is 
described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,069,513 issued Dec. 18th, 1962 to Nimer. 
The problem with the structures in the first two patents referred to above 
is that they require manual settings to the blocking position and if they 
are not manually set then they are not operative. The latter of the three 
patents described above to Nimer does show a structure with an automatic 
setting. However, not only is the Nimer structure quite cumbersome but in 
addition, the Nimer blocking member is biased away from a blocking 
position so that should his device fail or if the child tampers with the 
device it will automatically move away from the blocking position again 
rendering the Nimer structure inoperative. 
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,624,317 issued Nov. 30th, 1971 to Mikco Development 
Company Inc. and 3,723,671 issued Mar. 27th, 1973 to Edelcreek describe 
telephone locking devices which due to their non-retractable construction, 
have particular application in office environments and the like for 
locking of a phone against unauthorized telephone calls. However, the 
structures of these two patents including their key lock operations would 
not be acceptable for home use where they would require constant removal 
and replacement of the structures to the phone. 
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
The present invention provides a telephone lock which is automatic in 
operation to ensure that it assumes a locking position after each an every 
use of the telephone and which is easily operated by a grown up to move 
away from the locking position readily enabling use of the phone when 
desired. 
More particularly the automatic lock of the present invention which is for 
use on a telephone having a free handset and a pop up post depressable to 
a down position comprises a main body for securing to the telephone, a 
slide member slideably mounted in the main body and spring means 
pressuring the slide member to automatically slide to a locking position 
over the post when depressed by the handset to the down position. The 
slide member is then manually slideable against the pressure of the spring 
means away from the locking position to allow upward popping of the post 
with the slide member being reset to return to the locking position with 
further depressing of the post. 
In contrast to any of the prior art patents reported above the lock of the 
present invention is biased to rather than away from a locking position 
making it much less likely that a young child will inadverently render the 
lock inoperative. Furthermore, the spring pressure on the lock can be set 
so as to make it essentially impossible for a very young child to move the 
slide member away from the locking position.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION ACCORDING TO THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE PRESENT 
INVENTION 
FIG. 1 shows what is commonly known as a cradle type telephone indicated at 
1. This phone includes a handset portion 2, a cradle region 3 for 
receiving the handset portion and a pair of pop up posts 5 only one of 
which can be seen in FIG. 1. As will be well understood in the art and 
without the lock of the present invention posts 5 automatically pop to an 
up position upon removing handset 2 from the telephone. As described above 
young children will often play with the handset permitting them to make 
unauthorized calls or otherwise tying up the telephone line. 
FIG. 2 shows a preferred embodiment telephone lock generally indicated a 7. 
This telephone lock comprises a main body 9 having a self adhering bottom 
21 for locating and securing the telephone lock in the cradle region of 
the phone. As will be seen in FIG. 1 body 9 is also dimensioned to provide 
an extremely tight friction fit in the cradle region of the phone further 
enhancing the securing of the telephone lock. 
Slideably mounted in the main body of the lock is a slide member 11 having 
a lower undercut portion 14, fitted within a slide channel 19 of body 9. 
Also mounted in the slide channel is a coil spring 17 trapped between the 
inner end of the slide member and the end of the channel in the main body 
of the lock. Provided on top of the slide member is a roughened gripping 
surface 15 with the slide member further being provided with a cam shaped 
outer end 13. 
The operation of the device as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4 through 7, is simple 
yet extremely effective for child proofing of the phone. 
More particularly FIG. 1 shows the lock in a locking position where slide 
member 11 is located over one of the phone posts in the down position so 
that even should a child remove the handset of the phone the child cannot 
dial out on the phone and does not tie the phone up with a busy signal. 
In order to render the phone operative to place an outgoing call one simply 
places his or her finger on the roughened region 15 of slide member 11 to 
retract the slide member and pull it inwardly away from the locking 
position thereby allowing post 5 to pop to an up position. Once the posts 
have assumed the up position the slide member can be released whereby the 
tension on the spring forces the slide member to drive back against the 
side of the post as shown in FIG. 5 where it is automatically reset to 
return to the locking position. However, as long as the post remains in 
the up position the slide member is blocked against travelling the full 
distance to the slide position where as stated above it bears against the 
side of the post. 
FIG. 6 shows the operation of the lock once the handset has been rested in 
the cradle region of the phone whereby slide bar 11 and more particularily 
the cammed outer end of 13 the slide bar wedges between the handset and 
the post which has already been moved to the depressed position by the 
weight of the handset. This insures that the lock moves to the locking 
position after each use of the phone without having to manually set the 
lock. However as will be appreciated the posts can be finger pressed to 
the down position without using the handset again resulting in an 
automatic movement of the slide bar to the locking position of FIGS. 1 and 
7 where the posts remain locked in the down position. 
FIGS. 1 through 7 show the operation of the lock device such that the slide 
bar slides outwardly of the main body to move to the locking position. 
FIGS. 8 through 11 show a modification of the lock for use on a different 
style of telephone which requires an outward pulling of the slide bar to 
the unlocking position and an inward retracting of the slide bar relative 
to the main body to the locking position. 
More particularly FIGS. 8 through 11 show a telephone lock generally 
indicated at 23 for use on a telephone having a post as shown. In this 
arrangement the telephone lock includes a main body 25 which is mounted in 
a recess region of the body of the telephone as shown in the drawings. 
Also provided in the telephone lock is a slide member 27 with a spring 29 
being attached between the main body and the slide member of the lock. The 
spring resists outward pulling of the slide member so that the lock is 
normally biased to the FIG. 11 position where it will be seen that the 
downward extension outer edge portion 31 of the slide member sits atop and 
holds the post in the down position. In order to make use of the telephone 
for placing a call one simply grips the side edges of the slide member as 
shown in FIG. 8 and pulls the slide member outwardly allowing the posts to 
pop up. However, in many instances the post itself will have an inclined 
surface and there is nothing for the slide member to bear against to hold 
it in the unlocked position. Therefore as shown in FIG. 9 accordingly the 
telephone lock itself is provided with an anti-lock feature comprising a 
male/female interlock including a small bar or stud 33 on the base of the 
slide member and a small groove 35 in the main body of the lock into which 
stud 33 drops when the slide member is pulled outwardly to the FIG. 9 
position. With this male/female anti-lock in effect the post will remain 
in the up position allowing use of the phone. 
FIG. 10 on the other hand shows the release of the anti-lock feature by 
simply placing the handle or handset 2a down onto the phone in its cradle 
region. Here it will be seen that slide bar 27 has a tilt action caused by 
the weight of the handset popping stud 33 out of groove 35 and allowing 
spring 29 to retract the slide member inwardly of the main body of the 
lock to the locking position as shown in FIG. 11. Therefore, once again 
the operation of the lock device is automatically affected by simply 
placing the handset back onto the phone, without having to manually set 
the lock. 
Although various perferred embodiments of the invention have been described 
herein in detail it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that 
variations may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the 
invention or the scope of the appended claims.