Assemblies for organizing household articles suspended on non-porous surfaces such as tile, glass and walls have evolved over the past decade with increased popularity based on convenience and design choice. For instance, Lindsey Pat. No. 4,889,141 describes a shower kit for holding toiletries, and Urbano Pat. No. 4,938,346 describes a wall-mounted soap dish, both of which are adapted to attach onto non-porous surfaces via suction cups.
Some art-recognized devices are suspended from the shower arm or pipe which extends from the wall of a bath area and are stabilized with suction cups on the lower aspects of the assembly. A representative example is provided in Chapman Design Pat. No. 251,522 which depicts a coated wire frame shower caddy for holding toiletries which is stabilized from side-ways movement with split tunnel suction cups. In such suction cups, the point of attachment to the wire frame is a slit in the rear or "knob" of the suction cup which engages the coated wire, parallel with respect to the plane of the attachment surface.
Another example is provided in Schoenfelder Pat. No. 1,694,235 which describes a coated wire frame soap dish for attaching to a non-porous surface with knob-piercing suction cups. The coated wire frame assembly provides specific arms for penetrating the rear knob of the suction cup perpendicularly with respect to the plane of the attachment surface. The point of attachment is, thus, fixed in accordance with the design of the coated wire frame, and adherence problems may arise if such suction cups are confined to a position overlying porous areas such as grout lines between tiled surfaces.
Weiant Pat. No. 2,044,520 describes a wall-mounted soap dish which is similarly adapted to attach onto non-porous, flat surfaces via suction cups. The suction cups described here are attached to arms which extend from the molded dish, and the point of attachment on the rear knob of such a suction cup is a hole or tunnel which is parallel with respect to the plane of the attachment surface. Here again, the points of attachment are fixed relative to the design of the soap dish and no adjustability is permitted if a porous area on the mounting surface is encountered.
A third type of suction cup is referred to herein as a "button knob" suction cup. Such suction cups do not require holes or tunnels in the rear knobs for attachment and examples are described in Isenberg Design Pat. No. 121,813, Wright Pat. No. 3,185,537 and Brewster Pat. No. 5,039,046. Essentially, all three patents show assemblies for vertical suspension from flat, non-porous surfaces via button knob suction cups. These cups have a frontal aspect having the suction portion for adhering to a flat surface and a rear portion comprised of a knob onto which is suspended the weight of the holding assembly.
More specifically, Isenberg discloses a coated wire frame soap dish which is adapted to be suspended from button knobs of suction cups which are inserted between adjacent, parallel coated wires and held in place by the bias provided between the parallel wires. Wright shows a molded soap holder having punched holes in the rear walls through which the knobs are inserted, followed by mounting of the suction cups to a non-porous surface wall. The weight of the soap holder is suspended from the punched, non-adjustable holes. Brewster teaches a coated wire, baby bottle holder which have loops formed in the superior aspects of the wire frame for suspending the assembly from button knobs of suction cups.
None of these references teach an assembly which permits an adjustable attachment of a suction cup to avoid porous areas of an attachment surface. The problems associated with adherence of suction cups to porous surface areas are particularly pronounced with corner brackets. For example, Conteiro Pat. No. 1,325,143 describes a corner mounted, shower bracket for holding bath articles. The Conteiro corner bracket is held by non-adjustable, rubber suction cups. If by chance a particular shower stall has grout lines and tiles which conform perfectly with the fixed position of the suction cups, with no areas of porous grout coming under the cups, the corner assembly will stay mounted. However, as is usually the case, porous grout lines do not conform well with fixed assembly designs and attempts at such suction cup attachment are weak if not a total failure.
Emery Pat. Nos. 5,014,860 and 5,289,927 teach coated wire corner shower caddies and address some of the problems existing in the art associated with suction cups and attachment surfaces having partial porous areas. The Emery patents disclose suction cups each having a tunnel in the rear Knob which is parallel with respect to the plane of the attachment surface. Horizontal portions of the wire frame are inserted into the tunnels on the rear knob of the suction cups and the cups can then slide horizontally along the wire frame for adjustment to avoid porous, grouted areas.
Despite such known improvements, a need yet exists in the art for overcoming the shortcomings and drawbacks of prior art designs which do not allow adjustability for their suction cups especially when the assembly to be suspended is not of a coated wire construction such as shown in Emery Pat. Nos. 5,014,860 and 5,289,927.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a key-hole lock device for adjustably holding button knob suction cups for suspending assemblies from flat surfaces.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a key-hole lock device for adjustably holding button knob suction cups for suspending assemblies from flat surfaces having a combination of porous and non-porous areas.
These and other objects will become apparent from the disclosure provided hereinbelow.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds