Patent ID: 6973700

Claim:
A paper clip for clamping a document, comprising: a first clipping piece having first and second ends along a length direction, said first clipping piece having a top surface and a slot therethrough, said slot extending from said first end along the length direction to a position apart from the second end such that a length of the slot is shorter than a length of the first clipping piece, the slot further having a width smaller than a width of the first clipping piece; a support beam having an inner surface adjoining the slot, an outer surface opposite to the inner surface, a lower side and an upper side, said support beam having its lower end adjoined to the first end of the first clipping piece and extending along a height direction which is perpendicular to the length direction, the lower side of support beam further having a width which is substantially the same as the width of the first clipping piece; and a second clipping piece having a fixed end and a free end along the length direction, said second clipping piece having its fixed end adjoined to an upper end of the support beam and extending along the length direction in such a manner that a length distance between the free end and the support beam is no longer than the length of the slot, the second clipping piece having a curved part which is partially located within the slot, the second clipping piece further having a width which is smaller than the width of the slot; wherein the inner surface of the support beam is a flat plane in perpendicular to the length direction, such that the inner surface substantially provides a guiding function when the document is received between the first and second clipping pieces so as to make a leading edge of the document being flush with the inner surface; wherein, a projection of the first end of the first clipping piece does not overlap with width of the fixed end of the second clipping piece in the height direction; wherein the first end of the first clipping piece and the fixed end of the second clipping piece are both adjoined to the inner surface, such that the outer surface of the support beam substantially forms part of the outer contour of the paper clip, wherein the support beam is as wide as the width of the first clipping piece.