Abstract:
The present invention provides a wearable dispenser for enabling a user to carry at least one article. The wearable dispenser includes a container having at least a portion of a three-dimensional character for containing at least one article and a connector attachable to the container and to the user or the user&#39;s clothing. Desirably, the wearable dispenser is suitable for containing tissues, and the connector is a wristband which can be worn about a wrist of a child.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
         [0001]    This invention relates generally to consumer goods and more particularly to wearable dispensers and methods for carrying at least one article.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    Consumers appreciate conveniences which make the tasks of their daily lives quicker and/or easier. Children in particular are less likely than others to stop an activity to look for a necessary item (e.g., a tissue) and therefore tend to do without such items with predictable consequences. Children also are more likely than others to leave an item (e.g., food, money, clothing, toys) in a quickly forgotten location when they do not deem it important at a specific moment in time.  
           [0003]    There are various types of dispensers and holders to hold such items. However, these holders and dispensers are often easily left behind due to their bulk or size. Additionally, often it may not be convenient to access the contents of such holders and dispensers. For example, pocket-size tissue holders are often used as an alternative to carrying around a standard sized tissue box at times when mobility is required or desired. However, these tissue holders can be easily lost due to their small size. Additionally, they may be too large to fit in a child&#39;s pocket and often small childrens&#39; clothing does not include any pockets.  
           [0004]    Thus, there is a need for a wearable dispenser to hold and dispense items, particularly tissues, which is readily available to a user, and in particular to children, at all times to facilitate use of such items and prevent them from being lost.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0005]    The present invention provides, in a first aspect, a wearable dispenser for enabling a user to carry at least one article. The wearable dispenser includes a container in the form of at least a portion of a three-dimensional shape of a character for containing the at least one article and a connector which is attachable to the container and to the user or the user&#39;s clothing.  
           [0006]    The present invention provides, in a second aspect, a wearable tissue dispenser for enabling a user to carry a plurality of tissues. The wearable tissue dispenser includes a container for containing the plurality of tissues and a wristband which is attachable to the container and to a wrist of a user.  
           [0007]    The present invention provides, in a third aspect, a method for enabling a user to carry at least one article. The method includes providing a container in the form of at least a portion of a three-dimensional shape of a character for containing the at least one article, and attaching the container to an outer portion of the user or the user&#39;s clothing.  
           [0008]    The present invention provides, in a fourth aspect, a method for enabling a user to carry a plurality of tissues. The method includes providing a container for containing the plurality of tissues, providing a connector, and attaching the connector to the container and to an outer portion of the user or the user&#39;s clothing.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0009]    The subject matter which is regarded as the invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other features, and advantages of the invention will be readily understood from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a wearable dispenser in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of the wearable dispenser of FIG. 1;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 3 is another perspective view of the wearable dispenser of FIG. 1;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 4 is a bottom view of the wearable dispenser of FIG. 1;  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 5 is a perspective view of another embodiment of a connector in accordance with the present invention; and  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 6 is a side elevational view of a second embodiment of a wearable dispenser in accordance with the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0016]    Examples of a wearable dispenser are depicted in FIGS.  1 - 6  and described in detail herein.  
         [0017]    FIGS.  1 - 3  depict one embodiment of a wearable dispenser  10  according to the present invention which includes a container  20  in the form or shape of a fictional character or non-fictional character adapted to hold a variety of items or articles such as gum, tissues, money, paper, food, toys, or other small items, and a connector or wristband  70  which is desirably worn by a user. Advantageously, wearable dispenser  10  may hold various items, thus making them readily available to a user, and in particular to children. In this way, needed items, for example tissues, can be dispensed or removed therefrom when needed without the necessity of searching for the items.  
         [0018]    Container  20  includes a bottom, upwardly extending sides and an aperture or an opening  30  extending through a side thereof, preferably a top side  40  thereof. Opening  30  is adapted to dispense the items therethrough. Preferably, container  20  holds tissues  50  which are dispensed to a user through opening  30 .  
         [0019]    Desirably, container  20  is formed in a three-dimensional shape of a popular children&#39;s character which might be drawn, for example, from books, movies, or television programming. Such a character might be, for example, an animal, person, caricature of a person, plant, or portion thereof. An example of container  20  embodying a fictional character is illustrated in FIGS.  1 - 3  and  6 . Opening  30  of container  20  may be formed as the mouth, nose, belly, hand, or other portion of such a character. For example, as illustrated in FIGS.  1 - 3  and  6 , opening  30  is formed as a portion of a belly of the fictional character. By forming container  20  in such a way, the child might more likely want to wear wearable dispenser  10  while storing items in container  20 , such as tissues, and more likely dispense them as needed. Thus, the child is saved the necessity of finding a tissue and a parent is saved the trouble of cleaning any clothing soiled as a result of the child ignoring a need for a tissue.  
         [0020]    In this illustrated embodiment, container  20  includes an openable or a detachable portion  60  (FIGS. 1 and 3) for receiving various items to be contained within container  20 . Items may thus be inserted or removed from container  20  through an opening  62  (FIG. 3). For example, openable portion  60  may be hingedly attached along an edge  73 . As best illustrated in FIG. 3, edges  72 ,  75 , and  79  may matingly engage edges  71  and include hook and loop fasteners, for example VELCRO-type fasteners, or other means, allowing openable portion  60  to be readily opened and securely closed. For example, openable portion  60  might include one or more hook portions  77  on edges  71  while container  20  might include one or more loop portions  78  on edges  72 ,  75 , and  79 . As an alternative, an openable portion may include a zipper or other releasably closable means. Desirably, openable portion  60  and opening  62  may be sized to allow the insertion of a tissue holder  65  (FIG. 3) into container  20  thus allowing tissues  50  to be dispensed to the user through opening  30 .  
         [0021]    As depicted in FIGS.  1 - 5 , container  20  may be fixedly or removably attachable to a connector which might be a wristband  70 , wrist strap, or bracelet which may be attached to a wrist of the user via fasteners, for example hook and loop fasteners, a buckle, or a zipper, or other suitable fasteners. FIG. 1 depicts a buckle  32  on an end portion  33  of wristband  70  and holes  34  to receive buckle  32  on an end portion  35  of wristband  70 , for example. In addition, as shown in FIG. 4, wristband  70  may be attachable to container  20 , for example, by being threaded through slots  90  in a bottom side  92  of container  20 . Wristband  70  might also be formed in the shape of or might be adorned with images of, for example, the characters described above for container  20 . Wristband  70  and container  20  might also be formed from materials which are soft, such as textiles, so as to be comfortable for the user and easily washable, allowing for convenient care thereof. Various portions of dispenser  10  might also be made of plastic materials. Advantageously, dispenser  10  might be made of materials sufficiently soft to reduce or prevent injury to a child if he were to fall while wearing it.  
         [0022]    As shown in FIG. 5, another embodiment of a connector or wristband  170  may include hook and loop fasteners provided on the ends of wristband  170 . For example, hook portions  80  might be attached to a first end portion  85  of wristband  170  while loop portions  82  might be attached to a second end portion  87  of wristband  170 , thus enabling easy attachment to a wrist of the user. The use of hook and loop fasteners on first end portion  85  and second end portion  87  advantageously allow easy release of wrist band  170  from a user if wrist band  170  was to catch on a foreign object. For example, wrist band  170  might release from a child if it was to be caught on a piece of playground equipment. From the present description, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that a wristband might also be a continuous elongatable or stretchable band. A user might stretch such a band to put it on and take it off while it might suitably retract or constrict to a size of a user&#39;s wrist when it is worn. The use of such fasteners is particularly useful for those, for example the elderly, who might have difficulty using other fasteners requiring more intricate maneuvering.  
         [0023]    In a further embodiment of a wearable dispenser  110 , illustrated in FIG. 6, container  120  may be fixedly or removably attachable to a connector  193 , a portion of which may be removably or fixedly attachable to a user or directly to the user&#39;s clothing. For example, the connector may be releasably attachable to an outer portion of the user or the user&#39;s clothing. As shown in FIG. 6, connector  193  might include hook and loop fasteners to connect container  120  to the user&#39;s clothing. A hook portion  194  may be connected to container  120  and a loop portion  196  may be connected to the user&#39;s clothing  200 , for example an outer portion of the user&#39;s clothing such as a shirt or pants. Container  120  is readily attachable to clothing  200  by attaching hook portion  194  to loop portion  196 .  
         [0024]    From the present description, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other forms of connectors for attaching a wearable dispenser to the user or to the user or to the user&#39;s clothing may be suitably employed. For example, a container might be attached to a user&#39;s clothing using a pin, zipper, spring biased clip or other means. For example, a container might be attached to a shirt pocket of a user using a spring biased clip. These described connectors for attaching the wearable dispenser are in contrast to the user simply carrying tissues in the shirt pocket.  
         [0025]    As discussed above, by attaching container  20  to a user or a user&#39;s clothing, the user can easily and conveniently remove the contents of container  20 . For example, if the user is a child and container  20  holds tissues  50 , then a child could conveniently pull tissues  50  from the dispenser for use as needed.  
         [0026]    Although preferred embodiments have been depicted and described in detail herein, it will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant art that various modifications, additions, substitutions and the like can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and these are therefore considered to be within the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.