Patent Publication Number: US-2011070802-A1

Title: Stuffed Animal With Attached Blanket

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE 
     Priority is claimed from the U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/277,089 filed on Sep. 21, 2009, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART 
     The present application relates to stuffed animal, and more particularly to a stuffed animal with an attached blanket which can provide comfort and security to the owner. 
     Note that the points discussed below may reflect the hindsight gained from the disclosed inventions, and are not necessarily admitted to be prior art. 
     Small children usually feel more secure and comfortable with their familiar objects. Among toddlers, a comfort object may take the form of a blanket, a stuffed animal, or a favorite toy, and may be referred to by the terms blankey and lovey. 
     A number of attempts have been made to provide a combined design of a stuffed animal and a blanket. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,267 describes a design with a stuffed animal&#39;s head affixed to one end of the blanket, and the arms and/or legs affixed to the other end of the blanket. Both the blanket and the stuffed animal look cumbersome and time consuming for cleaning and storage. 
     Another example, U.S. Patent Application No. 2004/0199998, provides a convertible blanket that includes a zip fastener around its edge to convert the blanket into a sleeping bag. The pocket on the blanket may be of a shape of a stuffed animal. This design, however, does not provide a small child the security and comfort of both a blanket and a stuffed animal at the same time. 
     In U.S. Patent Application No. 2007/0037474, a stuffed animal having a pocket to contain a heartbeat simulating transducer is described. This design, too, does not provide a small child the security and comfort of both a blanket and a stuffed animal at the same time. 
     SUMMARY 
     The present application discloses a novel design for providing small children the comfort of both a stuffed animal and a blanket at the same time. 
     In one aspect of an embodiment, a stuffed animal has a large torso that is hollow. An aperture is configured on the torso for easy access and operation. Inside the torso, attaches a blanket. The blanket can be made of a soft fabric, for example, cotton, polyester, or satin. 
     Through the aperture, the blanket can be easily dragged out for small children to play with. The blanket is also detachable for cleaning or other use. Blanket can be located on the front torso by fabric hook-and-loop fasteners. 
     In one aspect of an embodiment, when the blanket is fully exposed, it is attached to the liner that is permanently attached within the torso of the stuffed animal. The blanket is attached to the liner either by being permanently sewn-in or by fabric hook-and-loop fasteners so that it can be detached from the liner if desired. 
     This design has a unique 3-in-1 concept in which it can be utilized either as a stuffed animal, a blanket or both at the same time with quick blanket accessibility and storage. The affixability and detachable blanket avoids being misplaced. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The disclosed inventions will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show important sample embodiments of the invention and which are incorporated in the specification hereof by reference, wherein: 
         FIG. 1  shows a frontal view of an example stuffed animal with an aperture located on the front of the torso in accordance with this application. 
         FIG. 2  shows a perspective view of an example stuffed animal and the attached blanket being out of the body cavity in accordance with this application. 
         FIG. 3  shows a perspective view of an example exposed attached blanket being accessed or stored within the body cavity of a stuffed animal in accordance with this application. 
         FIG. 4  shows a perspective view of an example liner that is permanently attached within the body cavity of the stuffed animal in accordance with this application. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SAMPLE EMBODIMENTS 
     The numerous innovative teachings of the present application will be described with particular reference to presently preferred embodiments (by way of example, and not of limitation). The present application describes several inventions, and none of the statements below should be taken as limiting the claims generally. 
     For simplicity and clarity of illustration, the drawing figures illustrate the general manner of construction, and the description and details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the invention. Additionally, elements in the drawing figures are not necessarily drawn to scale, some areas or elements may be expanded to help improve understanding of embodiments of the invention. 
     The terms “first,” “second,” “third,” “fourth,” and the like in the description and the claims, if any, may be used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the terms used are interchangeable. Furthermore, the terms “comprise,” “include,” “have,” and any variations thereof, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions, such that a process, method, article, apparatus, or composition that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to those elements, but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, apparatus, or composition. 
     It is contemplated and intended that the described examples and concepts apply to different kinds of stuffed animals; for clarity reason, the examples are given based on a stuffed teddy bear, but an ordinary person in the art would know the variations to modify the design for other stuffed animals. 
     In reference to  FIG. 1 , stuffed teddy bear  100  has a larger than usual torso  101 , which should be sufficiently big to be able to store a small blanket. This may mean the torso size is generally bigger than those of the currently commercially available teddy bears. On the front side of the torso, a fasten aperture  103  is configured to be the entry to access the space inside the torso. Unlike a current commercial teddy bear, Teddy bear  100 ′s torso is not firmly stuffed with filling materials like wool, silk, rayon, nylon, polyester or other synthetics, or combinations of fibers, but is stuffed with a blanket for small children. The blanket material may be made of wool, silk, rayon, nylon, or other synthetics, or combinations of fibers. The size of the blanket is matchable to those of the currently commercially available blankets for toddlers. Torso  101  is of the size that can be firmly filled with a small blanket and some amount of filling material, to produce a stuffed bear feel. 
     Aperture  103  is fastened either by zipper, button, or hook and loop fastener. The size of aperture  103  is sufficient for easily dragging out the blanket stuffed inside the torso. It can be placed either on the front side or on the back side, or under the arms, of the torso. 
     In reference to  FIG. 2 , the stuffing blanket  201  can be fully dragged out through aperture  205  from the bear torso and be completely spread open while attaching point  203  is attached either permanently or removably to the inside of the bear torso. The fixation of blanket  201  to the inside of the bear torso may be to a point  401  on the back side as shown in  FIG. 4 . The fixation can also be just inside the aperture  205 , through sewn-in, buttoning on, zippers or hook-and-loop fasteners. Attaching point  203  of blanket may be located in the middle, at the corners, or the edges of the blanket. 
     In reference to  FIG. 3 , exposed blanket  305  can be put back into the torso to make a firmly stuffed bear again. Blanket  305  may be folded or rolled and pushed into aperture  301 , and aperture  301  is then fastened with zipper  303 , or buttoned up, or hook and loop fastener. 
     As will be recognized by those skilled in the art, the innovative concepts described in the present application can be modified and varied over a tremendous range of applications, and accordingly the scope of patented subject matter is not limited by any of the specific exemplary teachings given. It is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and broad scope of the appended claims. 
     Additional general background, which helps to show variations and implementations, may be found in the following publications, such as, U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,267, U.S. Patent Application No. 2004/0199998, U.S. Patent Application No. 2007/0037474; all of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein for all purposes. 
     None of the description in the present application should be read as implying that any particular element, step, or function is an essential element which must be included in the claim scope: THE SCOPE OF PATENTED SUBJECT MATTER IS DEFINED ONLY BY THE ALLOWED CLAIMS. 
     Moreover, none of these claims are intended to invoke paragraph six of 35 USC section 112 unless the exact words “means for” are followed by a participle. 
     The claims as filed are intended to be as comprehensive as possible, and NO subject matter is intentionally relinquished, dedicated, or abandoned.