Patent ID: 8205752

Claim:
A package having child-resistant, senior-friendly dispensing properties for storing and dispensing tablets, comprising: a blister card having a substantially flat card section and a plurality of blister compartments for holding the tablets; and a hollow plastic sleeve having an opposed pair of major wall panels, an opposed pair of side edges and a dispensing end; said sleeve providing a protective housing for said blister card when said blister card is in a storage position within said sleeve, and said blister card being slidable in a direction relative to said dispensing end of said sleeve between said storage position and a dispensing position in which said card section extends at least partially outside said sleeve to expose said blister compartments; said sleeve including a pair of latches that extend from at least one of said wall panels toward said blister card; said blister card including a pair of latch-catchers for cooperatively engaging and catching said latches when said blister card is in said storage position to automatically lock said blister card in said storage position within said sleeve when said blister card is slid to said storage position; said opposed pair of side edges of said sleeve including a pair of opposed resiliently-depressible tabs for unlatching said latches from said latch-catchers when said pair of opposed tabs are simultaneously depressed toward one another to permit said blister card to slide relative to said sleeve from said storage position to said dispensing position; each of said tabs having an arm with a tapered surface extending transversely within said sleeve, wherein, when each of said tabs is depressed, each of said tapered surfaces of said arms engages and flexes said card section of the said blister card such that an adjacent one of said latches is released from an adjacent one of said latch-catchers; and said sleeve including a deactivator positionable between a first position in which said blister card is permitted to automatically lock to said sleeve when said blister card is slid to said storage position and a second position for preventing said blister card from becoming locked to said sleeve, said deactivator including a wall panel forming a part of one of said major wall panels of said sleeve when said deactivator is in said first position, and said wall panel of said deactivator having one edge forming a hinge about which said wall panel of said deactivator is pivotal from said first position to said second position.