Patent ID: 8141748

Claim:
A refrigerator having a dispenser, comprising: a cooling compartment; a door configured to open and close at least a portion of the cooling compartment; a dispensing unit that is configured to move between a received position at which a dispenser outlet of the dispensing unit is positioned on a side of a surface of the door where the cooling compartment is positioned and a dispensing position at which the dispenser outlet of the dispensing unit is positioned on a side of the surface of the door opposite of the cooling compartment; a dispensing button unit that is configured to move, in a plane perpendicular to the surface of the door, between a stored position at which the dispensing button unit is positioned on the side of the surface of the door where the cooling compartment is positioned and an extended position at which at least a portion of the dispensing button unit is positioned on the side of the surface of the door opposite of the cooling compartment, the dispensing button unit being configured to, in the extended position, control dispensing of content through the dispenser outlet in response to application of force to the dispensing button unit; and a driving unit that is configured to move the dispensing unit from the received position to the dispensing position in response to user input and that is configured to move, in the plane perpendicular to the surface of the door and simultaneously with moving the dispensing unit, the dispensing button unit from the stored position to the extended position in response to the user input, wherein the dispensing button unit comprises: a button frame unit that is positioned below the dispensing unit when the refrigerator is oriented in a normal operating orientation and that is configured to move, in the plane perpendicular to the surface of the door, between the stored position at which the button frame unit is positioned on the side of the surface of the door where the cooling compartment is positioned and the extended position at which at least a portion of the button frame unit is positioned on the side of the surface of the door opposite of the cooling compartment; and a button unit that is elastically supported by the button frame unit and that is configured to, when the button frame unit is oriented in the extended position, move, in response to application of force to the button unit, toward the surface of the door from a first position to a second position that is closer to the surface of the door than the first position and move, in response to release of the force applied to the button unit, away from the surface of the door from the second position to the first position.