Abstract:
A wine glass charm includes a magnetic coupling, the components of which are disposed at the respective ends of an encircling member to detachably attach the wine glass charm to the stem or handle of a drinking vessel. The encircling member may include identifying indicia or media and for further identification purposes, a uniquely configured charm may be dependingly supported therefrom.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The present invention relates to identification bracelets and, more particularly, to identifying media for use in conjunction with various types of drinking vessels.  
           [0003]    2. Description of Related Art  
           [0004]    At most social gatherings, the participants are served liquid refreshments served in non-throw away vessels, such as wine glasses, beer steins, etc. During the course of such a gathering, the participants often seek to obtain refills but sometimes forget where they may have left their original drinking vessel and seek a replacement. This results in numerous empty or partially filled drinking vessels distributed throughout the area of the gathering. More importantly, the participants seeking refills tend to request or obtain clean and unused drinking vessels. This demand for substitute drinking vessels places a heavy burden on the host or hosting organization to have a supply of drinking vessels far greater in number than the number of participants at the gathering.  
           [0005]    Many times participants at a gathering inadvertently pick up a drinking vessel believing it to be their own and end up drinking out of a drinking vessel previously used by someone else. This leads to socially awkward situations. Moreover, the drinking vessels may become transmitting media for bacteria and viruses with resulting medically related complications. In many cases, severe emotional stress is created when a person realizes he/she has been drinking out of someone else&#39;s drinking vessel.  
           [0006]    One solution to this problem is that of using only throw away drinking vessels but this solution is essentially only socially practical and acceptable at outdoor gatherings of an informal nature. For primarily indoor gatherings, wherein stemware and/or beer steins having handles are the drinking vessels of choice, personal identifying media has been used. One such media is the use of paper roundels normally used as coasters that have been cut from the perimeter to the center to permit insertion of the stem of a wine glass and the cut is closed by length of adhesive tape. The user can then write his/her name on the paper roundel for identifying purposes. Identifying media of this type is relatively inexpensive and serves it&#39;s purpose but it requires preparation and care during use, which are impediments to the practical value of this media.  
           [0007]    To reduce the workload and yet provide an identifying media, differently configured charms mounted on or depending from a wire clasp has been used. Such a clasp includes a U-shaped ends or hooks to permit mounting the clasp about the stem of a wine glass or handle of a beer stein and engaging the hooks with one another. For some people such engagement requires two-handed manipulation and depending upon the dexterity of a user, more or less difficulty is encountered.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0008]    The present invention includes an unique encircling member that may be a string of beads, a wire or one or more strands and may support an identifying charm. The opposed ends of the encircling member support magnets of opposing polarity when facing one another to form a magnetic coupling. To detachably attach the encircling member to the stem of a wine glass, handle of a beer stein or similar element of a drinking vessel, the ends of the encircling member are placed thereabout and into close proximity with one another. Upon placement in close proximity with one another, the end supported magnets are attracted to one another and become magnetically coupled. Thereby, the user has identified his/her drinking vessel as the encircling member with or without a supported charm(s) is unique from those of others. When the need for identification ceases, disengagement is effected by simply pulling the magnetically coupled ends apart from one another and withdrawing the encircling member from about the element.  
           [0009]    It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide identifying media for use in conjunction with drinking vessels.  
           [0010]    Another object of the present invention is to provide a magnetically coupled identifying media for engaging the stem or handle of a drinking vessel.  
           [0011]    Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an identifying charm magnetically coupled about the stem of a wine glass or handle of a mug or cup.  
           [0012]    Still another object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic coupling for retaining a string of beads or the like about the stem of a wine glass or the handle of a cup or mug.  
           [0013]    A further object of the present invention is to provide a flexible element having magnetically coupled ends for encircling the stem of a wine glass or the handle of a cup or mug.  
           [0014]    A yet further object of the present invention is to provide a wine glass charm retained in place by a magnetic coupling.  
           [0015]    A still further object of the present invention is to provide a magnetically detachably attachable identifying media for use with drinking vessels.  
           [0016]    A still further object of the present invention is to provide a method for identifying a drinking vessel used by a particular user.  
           [0017]    These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as the description thereof proceeds.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0018]    The present invention will be described with greater specificity and clarity with reference to the following drawings, in which:  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 1 illustrates a representative wine glass having a magnetically coupled identifying media encircling the stem;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 2 is a partial cross sectional view of the magnetic coupling elements;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 3 is an exploded view of the magnetic coupling elements;  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 4 illustrates a variant of the identifying media shown in FIG. 1;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 5 illustrates a further variant of the identifying media shown in FIGS. 1 and 4; and  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 6 illustrates the identifying media used in conjunction with the handle of a cup, mug or beer stein.  
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0025]    Referring to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a representative wine glass  10  having a base  12  from which extends a stem  14  supporting a glass bowl  16 . A user identifying media  20 , hereinafter sometimes referred to generically as a wine glass charm, is disposed about stem  14  and rests upon base  12 . The wine glass charm includes an encircling member  22  encircling stem  14 . It may be of various configurations and preferably is of one or more strands of beads  24 , as illustrated. Ends  26 ,  28  of the encircling member are magnetically coupled with one another to retain the encircling member about stem  14 .  
         [0026]    The shape, configuration, color, etc., of encircling member  22  may be considered as the identifying criteria to uniquely associate the encircled wine glass with a particular user. Alternatively or in conjunction therewith, a charm  30 , such as the illustrated depiction of an opened book, may be suspended from encircling member  22 . In such event, the unique charm would serve the function of the user identifying criteria.  
         [0027]    Magnetic coupling  36  is disposed between ends  26 ,  28  of encircling member  22 , as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3. Magnetic coupling  36  includes a keeper  38  secured to a clasp  40  disposed at end  26 . One or more strands  42  of beads  24 , or the like, extend from clasp  40 . A further keeper  44  is attached to encircling member  22  through a further clasp  46  disposed at end  28  of one or more strands  42  of beads  24 . Keeper  38  includes a cavity  50  for retainingly receiving a magnet  52 . Similarly, keeper  44  includes a cavity  54  for retainingly receiving a magnet  56 . The orientation of magnets  52  and  56  is maintained to provide an attracting magnetic force therebetween to retain keepers  38 ,  44  magnetically detachably attached to one another when placed adjacent one another, as shown in FIG. 2. Thereby, upon encircling stem  14  (see FIG. 1) with encircling member  22  to bring keepers  38 ,  44  in proximity with one another, the attracting magnetic forces between magnets  52 ,  56  will join with one another to form magnetic coupling  36  and retain wine glass charm  20  in place about the stem of the wine glass.  
         [0028]    It is to be understood that the magnet coupling can also be established with only one magnet. In such event the keeper not containing/embodying a magnet would be of magnetically responsive material (such as a ferrous product) to create a magnetic attraction between the keeper embodying the magnet and the keeper devoid of a magnet.  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 4 illustrates a variant  60  of encircling member  22  having a pair of strands supporting beads  62 , differently configured from those shown in FIGS. 2, 3, or other threadedly mounted elements. Moreover, a charm  64  representative a pair of a wine glasses is supported by variant  60  to provide unique identification to the user of the associated wine glass. As depicted, variant  60  includes a magnetic coupling  36  for detachably attaching the variant.  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 5 illustrates a further variant  70  of encircling member  22  shown in FIG. 1. Herein, the encircling member may be one or more strands of material, of which two strands  72 ,  74  are illustrated. These strands may be of metallic or non-metallic material; preferably, they are of non resilient flexible material. A yet further charm  76 , depicting a cross, may be used as an identifying symbol for the user of the wine glass about which stem variant  70  is mounted.  
         [0031]    Sometimes beer steins, mugs or cups having handles are used in place of or in conjunction with wine glasses at business or social gatherings. As with wine glasses, it is generally of concern to insure that a user be able to identify the beer stein, mug or cup which he/she has been using. FIG. 6 illustrates a representative beer stein, mug or cup identified by reference numeral  80  and having a handle  82 . The handle is uniquely adapted for engagement by user identifying media  20  described above. A user would encircle a part of the handle with encircling member  22  until keeper  38  at end  26  becomes magnetically coupled with keeper  44  at end  28 . The resulting detachable attachment of the user identifying media would provide a source of identification of the user associated with the particular beer stein, mug or cup. To further enhance the identification by a user, a charm  84  may be dependingly supported from encircling member  22 , which charm is illustrated as a key.  
         [0032]    While the invention has been described with reference to several particular embodiments thereof, those skilled in the art will be able to make the various modifications to the described embodiments of the invention without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention. It is intended that all combinations of elements and steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same result are within the scope of the invention.