U.S. patent application number 12/080771 was filed with the patent office on 2009-10-08 for plate with features that cooperatively interact with utensils.
Invention is credited to Carter T. Malcolm, Jacqueline K. Malcolm.
Application Number | 20090250474 12/080771 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 41132320 |
Filed Date | 2009-10-08 |
United States Patent
Application |
20090250474 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Malcolm; Carter T. ; et
al. |
October 8, 2009 |
Plate with features that cooperatively interact with utensils
Abstract
A food serving plate with features that cooperatively interact
with utensils to provide fun assistance to young children with
their effort to load food onto their utensils. The features on the
food serving plate include either or both of: a slotted ramp that
accepts the tines of an eating utensil, such as a fork, which
allows a person to load food onto the utensil by pushing the food
up the ramp and then sliding the utensil under the food when it has
reached sufficient height; and a ramp with a nested depression that
accepts the leading perimeter contours of a utensil with a
food-receiving bowl, such as a spoon, which allows a person to load
food onto the utensil by positioning the utensil within the nested
depression and by pushing the food up the ramp with a second
utensil with a blunt profile, such as a pusher, and over the nested
depression.
Inventors: |
Malcolm; Carter T.; (Ann
Arbor, MI) ; Malcolm; Jacqueline K.; (Ann Arbor,
MI) |
Correspondence
Address: |
CARTER MALCOLM
1733 FOXDALE LANE
ANN ARBOR
MI
48108
US
|
Family ID: |
41132320 |
Appl. No.: |
12/080771 |
Filed: |
April 7, 2008 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
220/574.1 ;
220/574 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A47G 19/02 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
220/574.1 ;
220/574 |
International
Class: |
A47G 19/02 20060101
A47G019/02; A47G 19/00 20060101 A47G019/00 |
Claims
1. A food serving plate that contains a slotted ramp wherein the
slots in the ramp are sized to accept the tines of an eating
utensil, such as a fork, and wherein the height of the ramp at the
peak of its slope is equal to or greater than the vertical
thickness of the tines of the eating utensil.
2. The food serving plate of claim 1 wherein the slotted ramp is
bound on one or both sides by a raised ridge that extends to a
height greater than the slotted ramp along the entire slope of the
slotted ramp.
3. The food serving plate of claim 1 wherein the slotted ramp
terminates at an opposing feature being either vertical or sloped
which has a height that is greater than the peak height of the
slotted ramp.
4. A food serving plate which contains a ramp that leads to a
nested depression wherein the nested depression is sized to snugly
receive the leading perimeter of an eating utensil with a
food-receiving bowl, such as a spoon, and wherein the nested
depression contains sufficient perimeter contours to properly
position the utensil, and wherein the height of the ramp is
elevated at or above the height of the utensil when the utensil is
positioned in the nested depression.
5. The food serving plate of claim 4 wherein the ramp is bound on
one or both sides by a raised ridge that extends to a height
greater than the ramp along the entire slope of the ramp and which
is sized to receive the contours of a blunt utensil, such as a
pusher or the side profile of a knife.
Description
REFERENCES CITED
U.S. Patent Documents:
TABLE-US-00001 [0001] 4,863,033 September 1989 Buj 4,986,434
January 1991 Prestyly et al. 5,172,826 December 1992 Celaya
5,638,981 June 1997 Crane et al. 5,938,066 August 1999 DeMars
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention relates to food serving devices. More
particularly, it pertains to an individual food serving plate that
is designed to be used by children to facilitate their independent
use of utensils.
[0004] 2. Description of the Prior Art
[0005] Many parents struggle to get their children to eat
independently with utensils. Prior art exists that has special
forms of dinnerware that seek to address this problem by either
making the dinnerware entertaining or by offering features that
interact with utensils. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,066 and
U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,033 disclose food serving plates on which
utensils can be mounted; the plates and utensils in these
disclosures encourage children to eat by using decorations and/or
entertaining toy figures that seek to make eating fun. U.S. Pat.
No. 4,986,434 discloses a dish that contains a cavity that helps
users load string-form pasta onto a utensil by spinning the utensil
within the cavity. U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,981 discloses a plate with a
hollowed out recess in the bottom that is located at or below the
food-receiving surface of the plate and has a lip that overlaps and
engages an edge of a utensil, such as a spoon, so that the utensil
is retained within the recess and food can be smoothly slid from
the plate onto the utensil.
[0006] The present invention offers a different solution to get
children to eat independently with utensils than that presented by
the prior art. The present invention offers features that appeal to
children because the features are not only fun, but also because
the features interact with utensils to assist children's efforts to
load food onto utensils. Additionally, the geometry of the features
in the present invention differs from the geometry of the features
disclosed in the prior art.
[0007] Known prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,033; U.S. Pat.
No. 4,986,434; U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,826; U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,981;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,066;
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] The general purpose of the present invention, which will be
described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a food
serving plate with features that cooperatively interact with
utensils to offer a young child fun assistance with their efforts
to load food onto utensils.
[0009] The food serving plate may include a sloped ramp that leads
to a nested depression that is elevated from the main surface of
the plate. The nested depression is sized to snugly accept the
leading perimeter of a utensil with a food-receiving bowl, such as
a spoon. An individual using the plate can load food onto the bowl
of the utensil using this feature. The individual would do so by
holding the utensil with the bowl placed within the nested
depression. With the utensil in place, the individual would use
their other hand to manipulate the food up the ramp using a blunt
utensil, such as a pusher, or other specifically configured
implement. Upon reaching the top of the ramp, the individual would
continue to manipulate the food over the nested depression with the
blunt utensil. The food will fall from the elevated ramp onto the
bowl of the utensil that is held within the nested depression. The
individual may then lift the utensil to eat the food.
[0010] The food serving plate may include a slotted ramp. The slots
in the ramp are designed to accept the tines of an eating utensil,
such as a fork. The slotted ramp may lead to a vertical or sloped
wall. An individual using the plate can load food onto the utensil
using this feature. The individual would push food over to the
slotted ramp with the utensil. The individual would align the tines
of the utensil with the slots in the ramp and then push the food up
the slotted ramp with the utensil. As the utensil progresses into
the slotted ramp, the tines of the utensil first push the food up
the ramp and then slide under the food once the food is
sufficiently elevated on the ramp to clear the top of the tines of
the utensil. A vertical or sloped wall may provide assistance as a
backstop to prevent large food items from being pushed over the top
of the ramp by the utensil. When the utensil is sufficiently
positioned under the food, the individual can lift the fork upward
to remove it from the slotted ramp and thereby load the food on the
utensil.
[0011] The food serving plate may include both of the previously
described features: a sloped ramp that leads to a nested depression
that is elevated from the main surface of the plate; and a slotted
ramp.
[0012] While other prior art discloses features that assist
individuals with loading food onto utensils, none do so with the
same elements as disclosed within the present invention. Prior art
exists that discloses a hollowed out recess that accepts a spoon to
facilitate the loading of food onto the spoon. The hollowed out
recess in the prior art is positioned below the main eating surface
of the plate and has an overlapping lip that will allow the utensil
to be cantilevered and retained in the recess. The present
invention differs from this and other prior art in several ways:
the present invention uses a combination of a ramp and a nested
depression to load food onto a spoon; the present invention uses a
nested depression which snugly accepts the leading perimeter of the
spoon, but does not snugly receive the bowl of the spoon; the
present invention does not use an overlapping lip to engage,
cantilever and retain the spoon within the nested depression; the
present invention uses a nested depression that is below the top of
the ramp, but not below the main eating surface of the plate. No
other prior art exists that offers a slotted ramp to load food onto
a fork.
[0013] The features of the present invention will become apparent
from the following detailed description considered in connection
with the accompanying drawing. It is to be understood, however,
that the drawing is designed as an illustration only and not as a
definition of the limits of the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
[0014] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of a
food serving plate formed in accordance with this invention;
[0015] FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the food serving plate of FIG.
1;
[0016] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the food serving plate of
FIG. 1 with the addition of a fork, spoon and pusher;
[0017] FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the food serving plate of FIG.
3 with the addition of a fork, spoon and pusher;
[0018] FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the food serving plate taken
along the lines 5-5 of FIG. 4;
[0019] FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmented sectional view of the ramp
and nested depression in the plate;
[0020] FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the food serving plate taken
along the lines 7-7 of FIG. 4; and
[0021] FIG. 8 is an enlarged fragmented sectional view of the
slotted ramp in the plate.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0022] Referring to the drawings, there is shown in FIG. 1 a
preferred embodiment of a plate 1 formed in accordance with this
invention. The plate 1 includes a ramp 2 that may lead to a
vertical or sloped wall 3. The ramp 2 has multiple slots 4. The
width and number of slots 4 present are configured to accept the
tines of an eating utensil 5, such as a fork (shown in phantom).
The length and angle of the ramp 2 are sized to allow the height of
the ramp 2 at the top of its slope to be greater than or equal to
the height of the tines of the utensil 5 (as best shown in FIG. 7
and FIG. 8). The height of the wall 3 should sufficiently extend
above the top height of the ramp 2 to retain any food items when
the utensil 5 manipulates the food up the ramp 2. The ramp 2 may be
bound on either side by a raised ridge 11. The ridges 11 should be
taller than the height of the ramp 2 to a sufficient extent to
retain any food items that the utensil 5 is manipulating up the
ramp 2.
[0023] The plate 1 also includes a ramp 6 that leads to a nested
depression 7 that is sized to snugly accept the leading perimeter
of a utensil with a food-receiving bowl 8, such as a spoon (shown
in phantom). The ramp 6 may be bound on either side by a raised
ridge 9 (as best shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 4) that are sized to
accept the contours of a blunt utensil 10, such as a pusher (shown
in phantom). The ridges 9 should be elevated above the ramp 6 to a
sufficient extent to retain any food items that the blunt utensil
10 is manipulating up the ramp 6. The height of the ramp 6 should
be sufficient so that the top of the bowl 12 of the utensil 8 will
be below the top surface 13 of the ramp 6 when the utensil 8 is
positioned within the nested depression 7 (as best shown in FIG. 5
and FIG. 6). The nested depression 7 should have sufficient
perimeter contours 13 to allow an individual to properly position
the bowl 12 of the utensil 8 so that food items manipulated over
the ramp 6 will be deposited onto the bowl 12 of the utensil 8.
[0024] It is possible to make the plate from any suitable material
or combination of materials and it can be manufactured in many
different sizes and in one or many colors.
[0025] Many changes and variations of the disclosed embodiments of
the present invention may be made without departing from the spirit
and scope of the inventive concept. Such changes, modifications and
rearrangements are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one
skilled in the art and all equivalent relationships to those
illustrated in the figures and described in the specification are
intended to be encompassed by the present invention. The present
invention is not intended to be limited otherwise than as required
by the appended claims.
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