Patent Publication Number: US-6712211-B1

Title: Stationery holder

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a stationery holder. More particularly, although not exclusively, the invention relates to a stationery holder having pivotable limbs at distal ends of which stationery items can be held and presented to a user upon demand. 
     Penholders, cardholders and writing pad holders are common desktop items. These known items however are static and therefore provide little user-interaction. 
     OBJECT OF THE INVENTION 
     It is the object of the present invention to overcome or substantially ameliorate the above disadvantage and/or more generally to provide improved stationery holder. 
     DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION 
     There is disclosed herein a stationery holder comprising: 
     a body, 
     a limb attached movably to and extending from the body, 
     a spring interposed between the body and the limb and biasing the limb to move with respect to the body, 
     a stationery receiver at or near a distal end of the limb, and 
     a release mechanism for allowing the spring to move the limb with respect to the body. 
     The limb would typically be attached pivotally to the body. 
     The stationery receiver would typically comprise a hollow cylinder having a closed end and an open end through which a pen might extend. 
     The and/or another stationery receiver might comprise a slot into which an edge portion of sheet material might be received tightly. 
     Preferably the pivotal attachment of the limb to the body comprises a tube fixed with respect to the limb or body and within which the spring is located and connected to the tube, and a shaft fixed with respect to the other of the limb or body and extending into the tube and connected to the spring. 
     There is typically viscous lubricant between the shaft and tube providing resistance against pivotal movement therebetween. 
     Preferably the release mechanism comprises a key-in-slot arrangement at an outside surface of the tube. 
     The key-in-slot arrangement preferably comprises a key mounted pivotally with respect to said limb or body and an exposed pushbutton extending from the key. 
     The key is typically mounted at a pivot pin, at one side of which there is a return spring and at the other side of which there is said pushbutton. 
     Preferably the stationery holder further comprises a pivot-limiting stopper preventing over-pivoting of the limb with respect to the body. 
     There is typically a pair of said limbs, each resembling arms. 
     The stationery holder might also comprise a head extending from the body and having internal illumination activatable upon depression of the head. 
     There might also be a clock and an LCD display on the body for displaying time. 
     There might further be feet upon which the body sits and at least one of the feet could have a bottom for activating the clock. 
     Preferably, the stationery dispenser further comprises a notepad holder extending from the body and resembling a backpack. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     A preferred form of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: 
     FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective illustration of a stationery holder, 
     FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective illustration of the stationery holder of FIG. 1, showing its limbs reoriented, 
     FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective illustration of the back of the stationery holder, 
     FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional elevational view of the stationery holder, 
     FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional elevational view of the stationery holder taken at V—V in FIG. 4, and 
     FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional elevational view of the stationery holder taken at VI—VI in FIG.  4 . 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     In the accompanying drawings there is depicted schematically a stationery holder  10 . Holder  10  is typically made of moulded plastics material and in the preferred embodiment resembles a toy robot having a body  11 , a head  22 , feet  26  and a pair of limbs/arms  12 . 
     There is an LCD display  25  on the front of the body  11  and there are bottoms  27  on the feet  26  to activate what is displayed on the LCD panel  25  by with an internal clock. 
     The arms  12  are attached pivotally to the body  11 . At the distal end of one arm  12  there is a stationery receiver  13  in the form of a hollow cylinder having its forward end open. This would typically receive a pen or pencil. At the distal end of the other arm there is a stationery receiver  29  having a slot  30  for receiving an edge of one or more sheets of paper or a business card for example. There is an internal detent  31  for making a slight bend in any card or sheet inserted into the slot to assist retention thereof. 
     There is a notepad receiver  28  at the back of the body  11  somewhat resembling a backpack and intended for receiving a peel-off sheet notepad for example. 
     The body supports a head  22 , being somewhat bubble-shaped, typically having an opaque top and a light-transmissive bottom  23 . There might also be an internal light source such as a globe or LED (not shown) which would illuminate upon depression of the head and then dim after a short time interval. 
     Each limb  12  is attached pivotally to the body  11 . To this end, there is extending from the shoulder portion of the limb  12  a cylindrical tube  14  within which there is located a coil spring  32 . The coil spring is attached at one of its ends to the tube  14  and at its other end to the end of a shaft  15  that is fixed with respect to the body  11 . The shaft  15  fits snugly within the tube  14  and viscous lubricant would be applied to the outside surface of the shaft  15  to provide smoothness and resistance to rotation of the tube  14  with respect to the shaft. 
     There is a release mechanism  16  comprising a key  17  that is received within a longitudinal slot  24  on the outside surface of the tube  14 . The key  17  is mounted upon a pivot pin  20 . At one side of the pivot pin  20  there is a return spring  19  biasing the key  17  into the slot  24 . At the other side of the pivot pin  20 , there is a pushbutton  18  that is a accessible from the body exterior. 
     Upon depression of the pushbutton  18 , the key  27  pivots upwardly against the return spring  19  to release the tube  14  whereupon pre-tension in the spring  32  causes the limb  12  to pivot upwardly and forwardly to the configuration depicted in FIG.  2 . 
     There is a pair of pivot-limiting stoppers  21  fixed with respect to and therefore rotatable with the tube  14 . These bear against opposed edges of the key  17  to define respective clockwise and anticlockwise pivot limits of the limb  12 . 
     The pivot joint and release mechanism described above is repeated in mirror-form at the other shoulder of the stationery holder and functions in the same manner. 
     It should be appreciated that modifications and alterations obvious to those skilled in the art are not to be considered as beyond the scope of the present invention. For example, instead of the tube  14  being fixed with respect to the limb  12 , it might be a fixed with respect to the body  11 , in which case the shaft  15  would be fixed with respect to the limb and the pushbutton would extend from the limb. Furthermore, instead of being attached pivotally to the body, the limbs might telescope in and out with respect thereto.