Abstract:
An earbuds carrying case hingeably openable and closable in exerting a downward force to hold the earbuds in position and its wound cable connections in place.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    A Provisional Patent Application covering the invention described herein was filed on Oct. 23, 2015, and assigned Ser. No. 62/245,422. 
     
    
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
       [0002]    Research and development of this invention and Application have not been federally sponsored, and no rights are given under any Federal program. 
       REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX 
       [0003]    NOT APPLICABLE 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0004]    Field of the Invention 
         [0005]    This invention relates to organizers for personal listening devices, in general, and to earbuds carrying case configurations which position and hold the earbuds and their cable connections in place, in particular. 
         [0006]    Description of the Related Art 
         [0007]    As will be appreciated, packaging in which personal listening devices such as earbuds are typically advertised and sold are neither shaped nor designed for their easy carrying about and storing in everyday common usage. More often, whether the packaging be in the shape and size slightly larger than that of a cigarette box, or larger in a contoured plastic box configuration, once the devices are taken out originally, any attempt of replacing them to be stored within the container is difficult to do. And, even thereafter, if successful, even more difficult in trying to carry them about in one&#39;s pocket or purse, especially without causing damage to their wire cable interconnections. 
         [0008]    Frequently, earbuds are lost—and in the worst case, are broken by someone stepping on them. Even with travel pouches where they can be kept safely, their wire cables often become tangled or knotted when carried about. Leaving the earbuds about adds to the problems of their getting lost, and just pulling them out from one&#39;s pants pockets or purse may result in the cable detaching from the housing or from any in-line volume controls that may be present. With the quality and price of expensive earbuds, the need for keeping them safe becomes that much more apparent. 
       OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION 
       [0009]    Appreciating the annoyance of having lost the earbuds, or having them damaged in use, an objective of the present invention is to provide a case for carrying them about. A second objective is having such a case which can be easily and comfortably carried about in one&#39;s clothing—or bag or purse for that matter. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0010]    As will become clear from the following description, the earbuds carrying case organizer of the invention includes an internal frame configuration for the winding about and securement of the cable interconnections within the case, with cut-outs in which the earbud housings are laid. With the case being hingeably openable and closable, a dimensioning and positioning of the internal frame serves to exert a downward force upon the earbuds in holding them in position, as well as holding the wound cable connections in place. 
         [0011]    In accordance with the invention, such carrying case organizer can be sized to not only fit comfortably within a pocket or purse, but can be packaged for sale in a common type of hang-tag arrangement from a display hook. A see-through plastic manufacture, where desired, can allow for the visualization through its cover of the earbud components within the case housing, and/or decorated in any alternative fashion. Foam pieces lying on its base can be cut to place and position the components inside, with one or more pillars extending upwards from the base around which the wire cable interconnections can be wound. While sufficient to provide an economical earbuds carrying case organizer,—the case could be enlarged even further to allow additional “ear tips”, or “tools”, or extra component parts added for storage, such as identifying or cosmetic “tags” or “tabs”, as may be desired. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0012]    These and other features of the present invention will be more clearly understood from a consideration of the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying Drawings in which: 
           [0013]      FIGS. 1A-1D  are 4 views of an earbuds carrying case organizer in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention; 
           [0014]      FIGS. 2A-2F  are 6 views of an earbuds carrying case organizer according to a second embodiment of the invention; 
           [0015]      FIGS. 3A-3B  are 2 views helpful in an understanding of the invention illustrating a manner of storing a pair of earbuds in the carrying case organizer of  FIGS. 2A-2F ; and 
           [0016]      FIGS. 4A-4F  are 6 views of a third earbuds carrying case organizer embodiment according to the invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0017]    In the views of  FIGS. 1A-1D , the earbuds carrying case organizer  10  (hereinafter simply referred to as a “case” or “carrying case”) includes a top or cover portion  12  and a bottom or base portion  14 . A living hinge  16  joins the portions  12  and  14  so that the cover portion  12  can snugly fit over the base portion  14  in opening and closing the case  10 . Four pillars  18  adjacent opposing corners of the base portion  14  extend upwardly beyond the height of the base portion  14  in extending towards the cover portion  12 —as depicted in  FIG. 1A  with the cover portion  12  open, and in  FIG. 1D  within the cover portion  12  removed. Each of the pillars  18  is set inwardly between the side walls  20  of the base portion  14 , and inwardly between the side walls  22  of the cover portion  12  when lowered closed in allowing the wire cable interconnections of the earbuds to be wound around the pillars  18 , in being held in place within the earbuds carrying case when the cover portion  12  is closed. In these respects,  FIG. 1A  is a side view of the case when opened,  FIG. 1B  is a top view of the opened case,  FIG. 1C  is a side perspective view of the opened case and  FIG. 1D  is a front view of the bottom portion  14  of the case  10 . As will be seen, the pillars  18  extend upwardly from a bottom  25  of the bottom portion  14  into the top portion  12  towards its top  35 . 
         [0018]    The second embodiment of the invention shown in  FIGS. 2A-2F  replaces the living hinge  16  of  FIGS. 1A-1D  to simplify a tooling manufacture. In the embodiment of  FIGS. 2A-2F , mating hinge components on the cover portion  12  and on the base portion  14  are joined together by a stud  30  illustrated in  FIG. 2D . With the hinge components shown as  32 ,  34  in  FIGS. 2E and 2F , the views of these figures respectively are: a side view of the carrying case closed ( FIG. 2A , a top view of the closed carrying case ( FIG. 2B ), a top perspective view of the closed case  10  with the pillars  18  shown in “phantom” ( FIG. 2C ), a front view of the closed case ( FIG. 2D ), a front perspective view of the carrying case with the cover portion  12  open ( FIG. 2E ), and a rear perspective view of the carrying case when opened ( FIG. 2F ). As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the pillars  18 , to prevent unraveling of the wire cable interconnections once wound, extend upwardly from the bottom  25  of the base portion  14  towards the underside of the top  35  of the cover portion  12 —either reaching it or falling just short of it, in allowing the cover portion  12  to press downwardly upon any wire cable windings that may seek to overlap above the pillars  18 . This would be the situation where the side walls  20  which define the configuration of the base meet the side walls  22  which define the configuration of the cover (as in  FIGS. 1A-1D, 2A-2F and 3A-3B ), or in an alternative embodiment where the side walls  22  overlap the side walls  20  in a closing of the case. 
         [0019]      FIGS. 3A and 3B  illustrate the hand windings of the wire cable interconnections  50  about the pillars  18  on a foam or like layer  42 . The earbuds are shown at  44 , and additional “ear tips”  46  are included in the carry case  10  within cut-outs in the foam layer. With  FIG. 3A  showing more of a top view of the base portion  14  with the wire cables in place than in the view of  FIG. 3B , a rotational lowering of the cover portion  12  to close the case for each of the  FIGS. 3A and 3B  configurations then results in the closed case depiction of  FIG. 2D . As will be understood, the resulting case can be made just slightly larger than the length of the earbuds themselves—especially if the case were manufactured without the cut-outs for additional “ear tips” as in  FIGS. 3A and 3B . The carrying case once closed would then be of a small enough size to easily fit within a pocket, bag or purse, and be easily removable therefrom, while at the same time protecting any damage to the wire cable or the interconnections with the earbuds themselves. The top  35  of the cover portion  12  could be of a plastic or see-through plastic composition in such an arrangement, or decorated in any manner that might be desired. At the same time, being of such a diminished size, the earbuds carrying case of the drawings can easily be fitted within almost any packaging selected, for easy hang-tag presentation in a store or counter location—as for ease of storage or display. And, once the earbuds are removed from the case, it becomes but a simple matter to rewind the wire cabling  50  around the pillars  18  in securing the earbuds in the protective case enclosure when the cover  12  is lowered. 
         [0020]    The third embodiment of the invention shown in  FIGS. 4A-4F  replaces the upwardly extending side walls  20  from the bottom portion  14  of the first two embodiments, essentially leaving the base flat, as at  60 . Additionally, the 4 separate pillars  18  employed in those embodiments are joined as corners in a connecting, upwardly extending 4 sided wall  62 , around which the wire cabling  50  of the earbuds is to be wound. Such wall  62  may further be notched at each side (as at  64 ) to facilitate the later placement of the earbuds  44  and the “eartips”  46 . The height of this 4-sided wall  62  is such as to reach to, or fall slightly less in reaching, the top of the cover portion  12  once the case is closed. 
         [0021]    The views of  FIG. 4A-4F  respectively are: a top view of the cover portion  12  ( FIG. 4A ), a bottom view being a mirror image; a left side view of the cover portion ( FIG. 4B ), a right side view also being a mirror image; a top perspective view of the closed case ( FIG. 4C ); a front view of the closed case (FIG.  4 D); a top perspective view of the bottom portion ( FIG. 4E ); and a top perspective view of the opened case with the earbuds  44  and wire cabling  50  in position ( FIG. 4F ). As will be appreciated, whereas the downwardly extending side walls  22  of the top or cover portion  12  meet with the upwardly extending side walls  20  of the bottom or base portion  14  in the embodiments of  FIGS. 1A-1D, 2A-2F and 3A-3B , the downwardly extending side walls  66  of the top or cover portion  12  of  FIG. 4F  overlap the pillar corners of the connecting wall  62  in this embodiment to extend to a top surface of the flat base  60 , or even to envelop around the side edges of the base  60 , shown at  68 . 
         [0022]    As will be understood, the embodiment of  FIG. 4A-4F  illustrates a further advantage of the invention beyond that offered by the first two embodiments. In particular, the embodiments of  FIGS. 1A-1D, 2A-2F and 3A-3B  illustrate not only a designed organization of the earbud type carrying case, but the ease in which the earbuds can be taken out of the case without tangling of the wire cabling  50 . That is, users of earbud type personal listening devices recognize that it is relatively easy to just coil the wires for storage, and then to straighten them out for use with typical design construction, even though it may be a hassle to do so when the wires are all tangled, needing time to uncoil them. With the invention as shown in  FIGS. 1A-1D, 2A-2F and 3A-3B , the wires stored in the carrying case organizer of the invention are very easily released from about the pillars  18  in facilitating the straightening, and in less time. With the embodiment of  FIG. 4A-4F , the ease of removal and arrangement for subsequent use follows through the notching at  64  to allow the grasping of the wire cabling  50  for release that much more fundamental. 
         [0023]    While there have been described what are considered to be preferred embodiments of the present invention, it will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the teachings herein. Thus, for example, while the preferred embodiments include 4 individually corner positioned pillars around which the wire cable interconnections are wound, other positionings may be employed instead, as with only 2 or 3 pillars, or even just 1 pillar utilized (as long as the pillar(s) extends from the bottom  25  of the base portion  14  to reach to or just fall short of the top  35  of the cover portion  12  in securing the interconnections in place, against unraveling). Similarly, while the side walls in the drawings define orthogonal configurations illustrative of a carrying case organizer that is “square” when closed, they likewise could be configured to form a rectangular, triangular, circular or other look for a case organizer in accordance with the invention. For at least such reasons, therefore,—and for the reason that the carrying case features of the invention are also applicable to the storage and transportation of personal listening devices other than earbuds—resort should be had to the appended claims for a true understanding of the teachings hereof.