BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The field of this invention relates to dishware and more particularly to dishware that resists spilling of food on a supporting surface due to wind.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

The spilling of food in conjunction with dishware is an exceedingly common occurrence. Especially outdoors, where dishware is usually encountered with wind, it is exceedingly common that a plate or other form of dishware can be blown of a table, bench or counter. Dishware that is designed particularly for outdoor usage is constructed of inexpensive sheet material, such as plastic or paper. Such dishware is exceedingly light in weight. Therefore, such dishware is readily susceptible to wind and can be easily blown off a supporting surface which usually is a table, bench or counter. If the dish contains a substantial amount of food, usually the food is of sufficient weight to keep the dish stationary even in a windy condition. However, as the food is consumed, the dish will become lighter in weight and when the consumption of food gets near the point to where the dish is almost empty, the dish is quite susceptible to being tipped over by the wind. It would be desirable to design dishware that is designed primarily to be used in an outdoor environment to be temporarily fixable to a table, bench or counter that will resist the tipping over of the dishware by wind. There have been previous attempts at designing dishware to be wind resistant. Such dishware of the prior art has been constructed to include an adhesive along the entire bottom of the dish with the adhesive to then be applied to the table, bench or counter which will then function to hold the position of the dish on the supporting surface. Typically, the adhesive is covered with a cover layer that is to be removed prior to usage. However, the removing of this cover layer does not permit easy and immediate usage of the dishware because of the additional step of removing the cover layer and then requiring disposal of the cover layer. Additionally, it is common for such dishware to be stacked and marketed in a stacked condition prior to usage. It is a requirement that such dishware to be as sanitary as possible because such dishware will be directly used once the dishware is removed from its package. The fact that the food serving compartment will have been in direct contact with an adhesive layer of another dish is not conducive to a sanitary condition. There is always a worry that some of the adhesive, though non-toxic, could remain on the food receiving chamber of the food serving dish which is not conducive to clean usage. The present inventor has previously obtained U.S. Patent No. 6,561 ,375 directed to spill resistant dishware. The subject matter of this patent is directed to the insertion of an adhesive on a sharp annular edge of a peripheral edge which is spaced some distance from the food receiving compartment. Therefore, the dishware can be marketed in a stacked condition and there is no fear that any of the non-toxic adhesive ever came into contact with the food receiving compartment. However, the adhesive on the peripheral edge of the dish has a tendency to cause the dishware to stick together when in a stacked condition. It would be desirable to design the dishware to be able to have adhesive that would stick to a supporting surface but did not hinder the separating of a dish from a stack of dishes when in a stacked relationship. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The first main embodiment of the present invention is directed to wind resistant dishware which utilizes a food serving dish having a food receiving chamber which is formed within the upper surface of the dish and is surrounded by a thin, sheet material, peripheral edge. The peripheral edge has a top surface which is in juxtaposition with the upper surface and a bottom surface which is in juxtaposition with the undersurface of the dish. It is the undersurface that is to rest on the supporting surface. A pair of spaced apart holes are formed in the peripheral edge and each hole is to be covered on the top surface by an adhesive strip. The adhesive strip has an adhesive layer which sticks to the top surface located about the hole. The adhesive layer has an adhesive which is low tack and will cause the dish to be fixed in position on a supporting surface but yet permits the dish to be easily manually moved leaving no residue on the supporting surface. The adhesive strip is manually deflectable within the hole to come into contact with the supporting surface. A further embodiment of the present invention is where the first basic embodiment is modified by the pair of spaced apart holes being located one hundred eighty degrees apart. A second basic embodiment of the present invention is directed to the method of making a wind resistant dishware comprising the steps of constructing a dish to have a thin, sheet material, peripheral edge, forming of a hole within this peripheral edge and placing a strip over the hole which has an adhesive layer which is to stick to the peripheral edge and cover the hole. A third basic embodiment of the present invention is directed to the method of using of a wind resistant dishware comprising the steps of obtaining a dish that has a hole formed in a thin, sheet material, peripheral edge where the hole is covered with a sheet material strip which has a tacky adhesive layer on its undersurface which connects with the hole, placing the dish on a supporting surface and manually deflecting the strip into the hole to cause the tacky adhesive layer to be pressed tightly into contact with the supporting surface. A further embodiment of the present invention is where the third basic embodiment is modified by the obtaining step including having a plurality of holes formed on the peripheral edge where each hole is to be covered with a separate sheet material strip.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

For a better understanding of the present invention, reference is to be made to the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the precise arrangement shown in the drawings. Figure 1 is an exterior top surface isometric view of a dishware plate which has been designed to include the structure of the present invention; Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 2-2 of Figure 1 ; Figure 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a portion of the peripheral edge of the plate of the present invention taken along line 3-3 of Figure 2 showing the deflectable sheet material strip in the undeflected position; Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view similar to Figure 3 but showing the thin sheet material strip in the deflected position in contact with the supporting surface; Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view similar to Figure 2 but showing a plurality of plates being arranged in a stacked arrangement; and Figure 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the peripheral edge of the stacked series of plates of Figure 5 taken along line 6-6 of Figure 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention, which is to be described in detail utilizing the accompanying drawings, refers to dishes, such as plates, bowls, trays and beverage containers each of which is to include a repositional pressure sensitive adhesive which is to facilitate fixing of the food serving dish onto a planar supporting surface, such as a table, counter, bench, boat deck and the like. Such plates, bowls and trays could be circular, oblong, rectangular or square. The use of the adhesive is to prevent the dishware from being blown off the supporting surface when used outdoors in windy conditions. The dishes are normally intended to be used one time and are designed to be disposed of after a single use. The dishware of the present invention, although it is designed to be of particular utility when used outdoors, may also be used indoors. The dishware may be made of any size and may be decorated in any color with any design for any holiday or special event. When used indoors, the dishware is of particular advantage when possibly feeding of pets which will hopefully prevent the dishware from sliding across the floor as the pet consumes his or her food. It is intended for the dishware to be designed to be of an aerodynamic shape which also helps to diminish its effect relative to wind. Referring particularly to the drawing, there is depicted a dinner plate 10 which has an internal chamber which forms a food receiving compartment 12. The periphery of the food receiving compartment 1 2 is enclosed by an annular wall 14. Integrally connected to the annular wall 14 and surrounding same is a peripheral edge 1 6. The peripheral edge 1 6 will normally be designed to be flat and when placed on a supporting surface 18 will be located flat on that surface 18. A typical supporting surface 1 8 would be a table. Typically, the supporting surface 18 has an upper planar surface. The material of construction of the dinner plate 10 will generally be of a plastic, foam or paper. Formed within the peripheral edge 16 are a pair of holes 20 and 22. The holes can be circular, oblong, square, rectangular or any other desirable shape. It is usually only required that the holes 20 and 22 be large enough to achieve the intended objective, which is to be explained further on in the specification. Placed over each hole 20 and 22 and adheringly located to the peripheral edge 1 6 located about each hole 20 and 22 is a thin sheet material strip 24. Generally, this thin strip 24 will be constructed of paper or possibly plastic. The thickness of the strip 24 will generally be less than one-sixteenth of an inch. The overall shape of the strip 24 can be rectangular or oblong, as is shown in Figure 1 of the drawing, or could even be circular. The undersurface of the strip 24 has an adhesive layer 26 applied thereto. The adhesive layer 26 is to have a low level of tackiness, is preferably non-toxic, odorless or may have a mild pleasant odor, resistant to moisture, resistant to microwaving and resistant to refrigeration and leaves no residue. It is preferable that the adhesive layer 26 be biodegradable or recyclable. Examples of such adhesive are "GeI- Tac®"; "404SprayNFix®"; "Leho 2 in 1 Glue Marker®D"; "Paste-N-Peal®" or an adhesive used in the popular "Post-It Note®". The adhesive is preferred to have a peel strength of at least one ounce per inch and could be thirty plus ounces per inch. The properties of the adhesive layer 26 will permit the user to easily lift the dinner plate 10 from the surface on which it is temporarily secured with an amount of pressure which would be similar to one to use to pull a "Post-It Note®" from a surface on which the "Post-It Note®" is mounted. The adhesive layer 26 is to be manually pressed by applying pressure in the direction of arrow 28 to cause such to extend through the hole 20 or 22 until the adhesive layer 26 is pressed tightly onto the supporting surface 1 8. The result is the dinner plate 10 will be temporarily fixed in position and will be held in that position until it is moved by the user. Also, the dinner plate 10 should not be able to be moved by wind unless it is an exceedingly violent wind. A desirable material for the strip 24 could be a flexible foam tape. Such tape is commonly used in the medical community on bandages. The adhesives are strong (about thirty-four ounces per inch in peel strength) and such are cleanly removable. Such tapes are waterproof which permits the usage of the dinner plate 10 on a boat deck making it less likely to blow off the boat deck even when the boat is moving at high speed and/or when water spray is present. Such foam tape is also highly flexible which allows the tape strip 24 to conform precisely to the shape of the hole 20 and 22 whether the hole 20 and 22 is circular, oblong, square, rectangular or any other shape when the strip is deflected into the hole 20 and 22. The foam strip 24 has little tendency to want to retract back to its original flat shape. The flexibility of the foam strip 24 encourages the adhesive to stay connected with the supporting surface 18 thus securely holding the plate 10 to the supporting surface 18 and for a longer period of time. Such tape can be cut into small pieces by a conventional die cutting machine and be applied to the raw sheet that will be formed to make the plates 10. The raw sheets can then be rolled to be then used in a high speed manufacturing process. The plates 10, or other food serving dish, can be immediately stacked and packaged since the adhesive layer 26 is recessed within the peripheral edge 1 6 without having the fear that the plate 10 will stick together. The plates 10 can be used instantly when such are removed from their package as no liners are needed. Although there are two in number of the holes 20 and 22 shown in Figure 1 , it is understood that there could be three, four or more of such holes. It would normally not be desirable to utilize only a single hole as it will generally be required to fix in position the dinner plate 10 on opposite sides therefore requiring at least two holes. Although it is considered to be within the scope of this invention that a single hole could be used. It is also to be noted that in referring to Figure 2 that the bottom 30 of the food receiving compartment 1 2 is located a spaced distance from the supporting surface 18. This is a desirable arrangement so that the weight of the food contained within the food receiving compartment 1 2 will exert a downward force on the peripheral edge 16 tending to keep the peripheral edge 16 adhesively secured to the supporting surface 1 8. Referring particularly to Figures 5 and 6, it can be seen that when the dinner plates 10 are located in a stacked arrangement, with there being three in number shown in Figures 5 and 6, that the adhesive layer 26 of one strip 24 does not contact any portion of another dinner plate 10 in the stack. Inadvertent connection of the adhesive is not permitted due to the recessing of the strip 24 with it only being when manual force is being applied in direction of arrow 28 to the supporting surface 18 that the adhesive layer 26 will function to secure the dinner plate 10 to the supporting surface 18. With the dinner plate 10 fixed onto the supporting surface 18, the user can slip a napkin 32 under the peripheral edge 1 6 which will also be held in position if the user desires. The discussion included in this patent is intended to serve as a basic description. The reader should be aware that the specific discussion may not explicitly describe all embodiments possible and alternatives are implicit. Also, this discussion may not fully explain the generic nature of the invention and may not explicitly show how each feature or element can actually be representative of a broader function or of a great variety of alternative or equivalent elements. Again, these are implicitly included in this disclosure. Where the invention is described in device-oriented terminology, each element of the device implicitly performs a function. Apparatus claims may not only be added for the device described, but also method claims are added to address the method of making and using the invention. It should also be understood that a variety of changes may be made without departing from the essence of the invention. Such changes are also implicitly included in the description. These changes still fall within the scope of this invention. Further, each of the various elements of the invention and claims may also be achieved in a variety of manners. This disclosure should be understood to encompass each such variation, be it a variation of any apparatus embodiment, a method embodiment, or even merely a variation of any element of these. Particularly, it should be understood that as the disclosure relates to elements of the invention,, the words for each element may be expressed by equivalent apparatus terms or method terms— even if only the function or result is the same. Such equivalent, broader, or even more generic terms should be considered to be encompassed in the description of each element or action. Such terms can be substituted where desired to make explicit the implicitly broad coverage to which this invention is entitled. It should be understood that all actions may be expressed as a means for taking that action or as an element which causes that action. Similarly, each physical element disclosed should be understood to encompass a disclosure of the action which that physical element facilitates. Such changes and alternative terms are to be understood to be explicitly included in the description.