Patent Publication Number: US-10779621-B2

Title: Protective ring case

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention is in the technical field of protective cases. More particularly, the present invention pertains to the field of protective cases for rings. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     There are a number of previous designs for protective ring cases, some of which snap over the exterior of a ring, or the sides of a ring, some even encompass the entire ring, or are ornamental and make the ring more beautiful, but there is no current protective case for a ring that encompasses every surface of the ring and still allows a channel through the protective case that allows the case and the ring inside of the case to attached to a carabiner, rope, string, or the like. The present invention solves that problem. 
     SUMMARY 
     The scope of the present invention is defined solely by the appended claims and detailed description of a preferred embodiment, and is not affected to any degree by the statements within this summary. In addressing many of the problems experienced in the related art, such as those relating to protective ring cases the present disclosure describes a protective ring case that fully encases a ring inside a hollow interior portion of a generally toroidal protective ring case with an exterior hole in its middle which may be sized, including the thickness of the case, to fit a ring&#39;s inner diameter closely, thereby securing said ring inside said hollow portion; wherein the exterior hole of the hollow generally toroidal protective ring case is large enough to fit a carabiner. The case may also have a number of additional coupling mechanisms and security features. 
    
    
     
       1. FIGURES 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a perspective view of a protective ring case with a horizontal hinge, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 1A  illustrates a perspective view of the same protective ring case of  FIG. 1  in an open position, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a perspective view of a protective ring case with a vertical hinge, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 2A  illustrates a perspective view of the same protective ring case of  FIG. 2  in an open position, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 3  illustrates a perspective view of a pressure snap fit protective ring case, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 3A  illustrates an exploded view of the same protective ring case of  FIG. 3 , in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 4  illustrates an exploded perspective view of a threaded closure protective ring case, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 5  illustrates a perspective view of a protective ring case attached to a carabiner, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding components throughout the several figures of the Drawings. Elements in the several figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be emphasized relative to other elements for facilitating understanding of the various presently disclosed embodiments. Also, common, but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     2. REFERENCES 
     
         
           10  Protective Ring Case 
           12  Ring 
           14  Case Top 
           16  Case Bottom 
           18  Exterior Hole 
           20  Reversible Coupling 
           22  Hinge Mechanism 
           24  Closure Clasp Mechanism 
           26  Hinge Mechanism Is Configured To Move The Top And Bottom Vertically 
           28  Hinge Mechanism Is Configured To Move The Top And Bottom Horizontally 
           30  Pressure Fit Clasp 
           32  Screw Thread Closure 
           34  Carabiner 
           36  Embedded Electronic Tracking 
       
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The following description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made merely for the purpose of describing the general principles of exemplary embodiments, many additional embodiments of this invention are possible. It is understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended. The scope of the disclosure should be determined with reference to the Claims. Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic that is described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment,” “in an embodiment,” and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, all refer to the same embodiment. 
     Further, the described features, structures, or characteristics of the present disclosure may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the Detailed Description, numerous specific details are provided for a thorough understanding of embodiments of the disclosure. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the embodiments of the present disclosure can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, and so forth. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the present disclosure. Any alterations and further modifications in the illustrated devices, and such further application of the principles of the invention as illustrated herein are contemplated as would normally occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention relates. 
     Unless otherwise indicated, the drawings are intended to be read (e.g., arrangement of parts, proportion, degree, etc.) together with the specification, and are to be considered a portion of the entire written description of this invention. As used in the following description, the terms “horizontal”, “vertical”, “left”, “right”, “up” and “down”, as well as adjectival and adverbial derivatives thereof (e.g., “horizontally”, “rightwardly”, “upwardly”, etc.), simply refer to the orientation of the illustrated structure as the particular drawing figure faces the reader. Similarly, the terms “inwardly” and “outwardly” generally refer to the orientation of a surface relative to its axis of elongation, or axis of rotation, as appropriate. Also, as used herein, terms such as “positioned on” or “supported on” mean positioned or supported on but not necessarily in direct contact with the surface. 
     The phrases “at least one,” “one or more,” and “and/or” are open-ended expressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. For example, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C”, “at least one of A, B, or C”, “one or more of A, B, and C”, “one or more of A, B, or C” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together. The terms “a” or “an” entity refers to one or more of that entity. As such, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more” and “at least one” can be used interchangeably herein. It is also to be noted that the terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” can be used interchangeably. 
     For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the present invention, reference will now be made to the embodiments illustrated in the drawings and specific language will be used to describe the same. Generally, the protective ring case is a durable case designed to hold a ring (wedding ring, engagement ring, class ring, etc.) while the owner is participating in work or pleasure activities during which wearing a ring is unsafe or could damage the ring. Several possible activities fall into this category including: rock climbing, water sports (where potential loss of valuable ring is high and the ability to find the lost valuable is low), medical workers (surgeons, nurses, etc.), construction workers (OSHA violations), etc. 
     Looking now at  FIG. 1 , a perspective view of an embodiment of a protective ring case ( 10 ) is shown; as can be observed from the drawing, the ring case in generally toroidal in shape. Toroidal shapes are often described as being donut shaped and the illustrated embodiment could certainly be more donut shaped. As it&#39;s currently illustrated, the toroidal ring case is shown as what can be described as the geometrical shape formed by a square or cube rotated in a circle about an axis exterior to itself; as there is no common term for this it is described as general toroidal; however, the term “generally toroidal” is intended to comprise not just the shown shape and donut shapes but all other generally toroidal shapes that can also be geometrically constructed by taking a geometric shape and rotating it in 360 degrees about an axis external to the geometric shape—for example, pyramids, ovals, hexagons, etc. Looking now at  FIG. 1A , the same embodiment shown in  FIG. 1  is shown in an open position, revealing that the generally toroidal ring case ( 10 ) is hollow and may hold a ring ( 12 ) within the hollow space. 
     Still looking at  FIGS. 1 and 1A , this embodiment comprises a case top ( 14 ) and a case bottom ( 16 ). Both the case top ( 14 ) and bottom ( 16 ) have an exterior hole ( 18 ) running through them. Both the case top ( 14 ) and bottom ( 16 ) are reversible coupled ( 20 ) to fully encase a ring ( 12 ) inside a hollow interior portion of the generally toroidal protective ring case ( 10 ) with an exterior hole ( 18 ) through its middle. In this embodiment, a hinged mechanism ( 22 ) is shown with a closure clasp mechanism ( 24 ) that strengthens the case when it is in the closed position as shown in  FIG. 1 . As shown in  FIG. 1A  the hinged mechanism may be configured to move the top and bottom vertically ( 26 ). 
     Still looking at  FIGS. 1 and 1A , the exterior hole ( 18 ) in the middle of the generally toroidal protective ring case ( 10 ) may be sized, including the thickness of the case, to fit a ring&#39;s inner diameter closely, thereby securing said ring inside said hollow portion of said generally toroidal protective ring case securely. 
     Looking now at  FIG. 2 , a perspective view of another embodiment of a protective ring case ( 10 ) is shown wherein the reversible coupling ( 20 ) of the top and bottom are accomplished with a hinged mechanism that is configured to move the top and bottom horizontally ( 28 ).  FIG. 2A  shows the same embodiment as  FIG. 2 , except the ring case is in an open position. 
     Looking now at  FIG. 3 , a perspective view of another embodiment of a protective ring case ( 10 ) is shown wherein the reversible coupling ( 20 ) of the top and bottom are accomplished with a pressure fit clasp ( 30 ).  FIG. 3A  shows and exploded view of the same embodiment as  FIG. 3 , except the ring case ( 10 ) is in an open position. 
     Looking now at  FIG. 4 , an exploded perspective view of another embodiment of a protective ring case ( 10 ) is shown wherein the reversible coupling ( 20 ) of the top and bottom are accomplished with a screw thread closure ( 32 ). 
     Looking now at  FIG. 5 , the ring case ( 10 ) may be easily attached to a carabiner ( 34 ). The ring case could also easily be attached to a lanyard or keychain. This allows the ring case ( 10 ) to always be with you and clipped to a secure location, creating a consistent, habit-forming place to store your valuable ring when you are not wearing it. The ring also stays attached to whatever you secured it to even if the case comes open or breaks. The ring case may also have embedded electronic tracking to prevent loss. 
     The protective ring case ( 10 ) can be made of any material suitable to its purpose, such as plastic, wood, metal, rubber, and silicon. The protective ring case can also be made of glow in the dark materials to facilitate recovery if lost. The top ( 14 ) and bottom ( 16 ) of the case may also comprise magnetic material that may facilitate or assist in reversible coupling ( 20 ). The reversible coupling ( 20 ) can be watertight thereby waterproofing the interior of the case and causing it to float. 
     Information as herein shown and described in detail is fully capable of attaining the above-described object of the present disclosure, the presently preferred embodiment of the present disclosure; and is, thus, representative of the subject matter; which is broadly contemplated by the present disclosure. The scope of the present disclosure fully encompasses other embodiments which may become obvious to those skilled in the art, and is to be limited, accordingly, by nothing other than the appended claims, wherein any reference to an element being made in the singular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one or more.” All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the above-described preferred embodiment and additional embodiments as regarded by those of ordinary skill in the art are hereby expressly incorporated by reference and are intended to be encompassed by the present claims. 
     Moreover, no requirement exists for a system or method to address each and every problem sought to be resolved by the present disclosure, for such to be encompassed by the present claims. Furthermore, no element, component, or method step in the present disclosure is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether the element, component, or method step is explicitly recited in the claims. However, that various changes and modifications in form, material, work-piece, and fabrication material detail may be made, without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure, as set forth in the appended claims, as may be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, are also encompassed by the present disclosure.