Patent Publication Number: US-7721899-B2

Title: Toothbrush holder

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
   This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/856,855, filed Nov. 6, 2006, which is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes. 

   BACKGROUND 
   Traditional toothbrush holders have usually consisted of a plurality of oblong openings, typically in the periphery of a cup holder, as found in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 184,012, in which the handle of a manual toothbrush is inserted into the opening. Variations of this type of holder use spring-biased grippers to grip the handle of a manual toothbrush, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 1,205,311, and those that use slots to engage the handle of a manual toothbrush, as found in U.S. Pat. No. 1,129,363. 
   More recently, toothbrushes with non-standard handles have become popular. Such brushes include juvenile toothbrushes with cartoon character handles, such as the Colgate® SpongeBob Squarepants™ Children&#39;s Toothbrush and the Crest® Sesame Street Kids&#39; Toothbrush, and battery-powered toothbrushes, such as the Colgate Motion and Crest SpinBrush®. Unfortunately, the handle designs of these toothbrushes make them impossible to store in traditional toothbrush holders that were originally designed for ordinary manual toothbrushes. The shapes of these oversized toothbrush handles also make them difficult or impossible to stand the toothbrush on end. Because of this, many of these toothbrushes end up being laid down on a bathroom countertop where they make a mess and can come into contact with a non-hygienic surface. What would be desirable is toothbrush holder that can hold all types of toothbrushes, including those with oversized handles, in a hygienic manner. 
   BRIEF SUMMARY 
   The present invention is drawn to a support for holding virtually all types of toothbrushes and more particularly to a toothbrush holder that can hold toothbrushes with oversized handles, such as battery-powered toothbrushes, in a hygienic manner. Embodiments of the toothbrush holder can be formed of attractive sheet material, such as acrylic or metallic sheet, and can be free-standing for use on countertops, wall-mounted, or a combination thereof. 
   Embodiments of the toothbrush holder include an angled base wall with a plurality of toothbrush retention cavities, a first angled portion of rear wall, a second substantially-vertical portion of rear wall, and a substantially horizontal top wall. The top wall includes a plurality of recesses on a front edge corresponding with each of the toothbrush retention cavities in the base wall, but offset in a rearward direction. In use, the base of a toothbrush is held in place by a retention cavity and leaned rearward so that an upper portion is supported in an equilibrium position by the corresponding recess in the top wall. 
   Embodiments of the holder can further include additional details such as: drainage or weep holes at the intersection of the base wall and the first angled portion of rear wall; holes in the second substantially vertical portion of rear wall for fastening the holder to a wall; double-sided adhesive strip on an outside of the second substantially vertical portion of rear wall for fastening the holder to a wall; and one or more support legs extending from an outside of the first angled portion of rear wall. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1A  illustrates an orthogonal view of an embodiment of a toothbrush holder; 
       FIG. 1B  illustrates a sectional view taken along line A-A of  FIG. 1A ; and 
       FIG. 1C  illustrates a detailed view of wall-mount details of a rear wall. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
   Embodiments of the invention are related to a toothbrush holder that can accommodate both traditional manual toothbrushes and those with oversized handles, such as found in battery-powered toothbrushes. A lower portion of a toothbrush is retained in place and an upper portion of the toothbrush is leaned into a recess, wherein gravity and friction act to hold the toothbrush in a generally upright position that allows drainage. 
   As illustrated in  FIG. 1A , a holder  10  comprises a planar, inclined bottom wall  40 , a rear wall  12 , and a top wall  30 . The front edge of top wall  30  includes a plurality of recesses  50  that are preferably arcuate. The top wall  30  is spaced from the bottom wall  20  by a distance or height less than the length of a toothbrush it is meant to accommodate, but greater than the height of the center of gravity of such a toothbrush. As such, a holder  10  designed for short, juvenile toothbrushes could be relatively short in height whereas a holder  10  designed for longer, battery-powered toothbrushes could be longer. However, it has been found that a distance between a recess and a corresponding retention cavity of between 10 cm and 12 cm will typically be able to handle the majority of commercially-available toothbrushes and that distances should usually be between 9 cm and 14 cm. 
   The bottom wall  40  preferably includes a plurality of retention cavities  60  corresponding to, and in vertical registration with, each recess  50 . In preferred embodiments, each retention cavity  60  is formed as a through hole, a non-through hole, or a concave indentation. In use, non-through holes or concave indentations may be preferable when the unit is wall mounted to prevent any drainage from dripping through onto other surfaces. When holes are used as retention cavities  60  for wall-mounted embodiments, the holes should preferably be small enough to prevent the handle of a manual toothbrush from falling through the hole. For free-standing embodiments, any suitable retention cavities  60  can be used and through-holes can be larger than the width of a manual toothbrush handle since the surface supporting the holder  10  will also support any toothbrush that passes through such a hole. While five retention cavities  60  are illustrated in  FIG. 1A  to produce a holder  10  for five toothbrushes, other embodiments can use fewer or more retention cavities for holding fewer or more toothbrushes, respectively. 
   The use of a circular hole (through or non-through) for retention cavities  60  has been found to be advantageous for use with battery-powered toothbrushes since the circular shape tends to center the bases of such toothbrushes and the edge of the hole (in combination with an inclined angle of the bottom wall  40 ) provides sufficient frictional retention forces to prevent the base of the toothbrush from slipping out of the hole, even when wet. However, other retention cavities, including but not limited to, variously-shaped holes and substantially concave conical and hemispherical cavities can also be used. 
   The bottom wall  40  is inclined at several degrees from horizontal, typically between 5 and 20 degrees, as illustrated more clearly in  FIG. 1B . This incline assists in leaning the toothbrush into recess  50  and can help direct draining liquids away from the base of the toothbrush. To further handle liquids that drain from the toothbrush, the bottom wall  40  can also include drain holes  70  at the intersection with the rear wall  12 . Again, while a drain hole  70  is illustrated for each retention cavity  60 , other embodiments can include fewer or more drain holes  70 . 
   As illustrated in  FIG. 1B , a lower portion of rear wall  12  angles up to a transition point  42 , where it bends to form a substantially vertical upper portion of the rear wall  12 . While the lower portion is illustrated as straight and extending for more than half of the height of the holder  10 , embodiments are not meant to be limited to this configuration and can be curved to a transition point  42  at a lower location. The illustrated embodiment, with the relatively high transition point  42 , allows sufficient room for attachment of support legs  20 . The illustrated legs  20  are triangular with a vertical back edge to allow the holder  10  to be placed flush against a wall, but numerous other configurations are also possible. 
   In embodiments that can be wall mounted or placed flush against a wall, the substantially vertical upper portion of the rear wall  12  preferably includes attachment means  14 . In the illustrated embodiment of  FIG. 1B , the attachment means  14  is double-sided adhesive strips. These strips  14  are also illustrated in  FIG. 1A  and detail  FIG. 1C , which further show through holes in this portion of wall that can be used to mount the holder  10  to a wall with fasteners such as screws, nails, picture hangers, hooks, rivets, etc. 
   If attachment means  14  are not provided on the holder  10 , the substantially vertical upper portion of the rear wall  12  can still be used with external means, such as mirror clips or adhesive, to attach the holder to a vertical wall surface. 
   As illustrated in  FIGS. 1A and 1B , the recesses  50  in the front edge of top wall  30  are in vertical registration with, but horizontally offset to be slightly behind the retention cavities  60 . This allows a toothbrush to be leaned into a recess  50  to be stored in a substantially upright position without requiring the toothbrush to be balanced on its end. In this position, the head of the toothbrush will not contact possibly-contaminated surfaces. The preferably arcuate shape of the recesses  50  act to center a toothbrush to keep it from leaning into an adjacent toothbrush and further allow the holder  10  to accommodate both narrow and thick portions of a toothbrush. Further, the dimensions of the walls and relative locations of the recesses  50  and retention cavities  60  should be chosen to preferably support the head of a toothbrush above the top wall  30  and prevent the head from contacting any vertical walls behind the holder  10 . 
   In preferred embodiments, the bottom wall  40 , rear wall  12 , and top wall  30  are formed from a single piece of bent or shaped sheet material. Sheet material suitable for the invention includes, but is not limited to, clear acrylic, frosted or satin-finished acrylic, colored acrylic, textured acrylic, brushed aluminum, polished aluminum, brushed stainless steel, polished stainless steel, brushed nickel, polished brass, brushed brass, antique brass, copper, plastic, rubber, wood, clay, and ceramic. Legs  20  are preferably formed from the same sheet material and glued, brazed, or welded to back wall  12 . Preferred materials should be non-porous (so clay would include glazing, e.g.) and easily cleaned for purposes of hygiene. The materials should also be resistant to bleaching compounds found in bathroom cleansers and toothpastes. 
   Because it is desirable for toothbrush holders to be placed in a convenient location in a bathroom, the aesthetics and versatility of placement are important to consumers. The embodiment illustrated herein, especially when formed of an attractive material such as clear acrylic, wood, or ornamental metal, is aesthetically pleasing and can be placed in a wide variety of locations due to the holder&#39;s ability to be free standing, to be wall mounted, and to be stood adjacent to a wall where it can both be supported by a horizontal surface and secured to a vertical surface. 
   A toothbrush holder has been described. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the scope of the invention disclosed and that the examples and embodiments described herein are in all respects illustrative and not restrictive. For example, the walls of present invention could be formed of separate components or the legs could be removable or folding without departing from the scope of the invention. Those skilled in the art of the present invention will recognize that other embodiments using the concepts described herein are also possible. Further, any reference to claim elements in the singular, for example, using the articles “a,” “an,” or “the” is not to be construed as limiting the element to the singular.