FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention generally refers to a seal and more specifically to a seal intended to seal the mouth of a bottle after the opening of such bottles. The invention intends to avoid frauds or contamination of an opened bottle, which is intended for later consumption of its remaining content.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is usual to have a bottle opened and then closed for further consumption of its remaining content, since the whole content of a fluid contained in a bottle, e.g. a drinkable liquid, may not be consumed at once, and it is desired to have the bottle closed for a future consumption of its content. This cycle may be repeated indefinitely, since there are some kinds of drinkable fluids that are consumed at low rates, for example, alcoholic drinks such as vodka and whisky. When the bottle content is consumed in a tavern, restaurant, or bar, at which the consumer habitually frequents, the consumer may buy a bottle of drink and consume it several times when frequenting the place. In order to guarantee that the content of the bottle is not lowered by a third party while the consumer is not at the place of consumption (i.e. tavern, restaurant, bar etc.), it is usually fixed at the side of the bottle a stripe with a scale, and a mark is done in this stripe indicating the last level of the bottle content when it was lastly consumed. Therefore, the consumer has a presumed guarantee that the partial content of the bottle is not lowered by someone without his consent.

Nevertheless, this method of indicating the last level of the bottle content, mainly used for the consumption of drinks in public places such as a tavern, bar, restaurant etc. is not very efficient. Firstly, because the indication of the level does not guarantee that a third party has lowered the content of the bottle and then filled it with another substance to match the mark indicated by the stripe of the last consumption. Further, the bottle is not sealed by appropriated means, and therefore does not avoid someone intentionally or unintentionally inserting another substance inside the bottle, even a harmful substance. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a bottle sealer that overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art, as described above.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

To achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention concerns a bottle sealer comprising:

- a closing means;

- at least two stripes extending from said closing means and each stripe comprising at least one opening; and

- a fastening means; wherein said fastening means passes through said openings to fasten said stripes against the neck of a bottle.

The invention may further comprise the following characteristics, alone or in combination:

- The closing means is circular in shape; - The closing means comprises a diameter between 10 and 50 mm, particularly between 20 and 40 mm, and more particularly about 30 mm;

- The closing means is made of a resilient material;

- Such resilient material is the Nylon, polypropylene, polyethylene, or polyethylene tereftalate; - The bottle sealer comprises four stripes extending from said closing means;

- The bottle sealer comprises six stripes extending from said closing means; - Said stripes are equidistantly separated from each other;

- Each stripe comprises more than one opening;

- Each stripe comprises 2 up to 10 openings;

- Each stripe comprises two rows of openings; - The fastening means is a band seal or a pull-tight plastic seal;

- The fastening mans comprises an identification tag;

- The fastening mans comprises two identification tags, one fixed to the fastening means and other detachable;

- At least one of said stripes comprises an identification tag. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described in relation to a particular embodiment, referring to the attached figures. Such figures are schematic and their dimensions and proportions may not correspond to reality, once they are intended to illustrate the present invention didactically without imposing any limitation beyond that defined by the attached claims, wherein:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a bottle sealer according to an embodiment of the invention; and

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the bottle sealer of Figure 1 , according to an embodiment of the invention. DESCRIPTION OF A PARTICULAR EMBODIMENT

Referring to Figures 1 and 2, it is disclosed a particular embodiment of the invention. The bottle sealer comprises a closing means (1) to close the bottle mouth. As the mouth of bottles are mainly circular in shape, the closing means may also be circular, to fit over the mouth of a bottle in order to close it and to avoid the contact of the content of the bottle with the environment. Since the mouth of bottles have different diameters, the closing means may have a diameter large enough taking into account the average diameter of the mouth of bottles. The diameter of the closing means is not relevant for the scope of the invention, and may be comprised between 10 and 50 mm, particularly between 20 and 40 mm, and more particularly about 30 mm. It was observed that such range of diameters is suitable to fit in the average diameter of the bottle mouths. Since may be variations in the diameter of the bottle mouths, the closing means may be manufactured with a resilient material, so it can be conformed on the bottle mouth. Such materials may be, for example, however without limitation, Nylon, polypropylene, polyethylene, polyethylene tereftalate, etc. Two stripes (2), and particularly four stripes, extends from said closing means. The stripes comprises openings (4) through which a fastening means may be engaged in order to fasten the stripes against the bottleneck, as will be explained in more details now.

Since the diameter and the length of bottlenecks may vary, the stripes (2) may be long enough to be supported around the neck of a bottle. The length of the stripes is not relevant for the invention, and may be comprised between 10 and 80 mm, particularly between 20 and 60 mm, and more particularly about 50 mm.

The number of openings (4) in the stripes may also vary, and said openings may comprise in one or two rows, with 1 up to 10 openings in each stripe. According to the embodiment represented in the figures, each stripe has two rows of openings, each row comprising five openings.

The stripes (2) extending from the closing means (1) may be angularly separated from each other in an equidistant manner. For example, when there are two stripes extending from the closing means, they may be separated from each other at 180° degrees. If there are three stripes, they are separated at 120°, and when there are four, they are separated at 90°, and so on. As mentioned, the number of stripes may vary, and preferably it is comprised between 2 and 6, particularly four stripes, as illustrated in the figures of the embodiment disclosed herein.

A fastening means (6), such as a band seal or a pull-tight plastic seal, passes through the openings (4) of the stripes (2), in order to fasten the bottle sealer of the invention, and particularly to fasten the stripes against the bottleneck. The fastening means is closed by pulling the band and tightening it. Consequently, the bottle sealer closes the bottle mouth and is fastened against the bottleneck by the stripes and fastening means. In order to avoid the unauthorized opening of the bottle sealer (i.e. aiming to prevent the opening of the bottle sealer and its subsequently closing by a new fastening means), the fastening means may comprise an identification tag (8). Such identification tag may be any means to identify uniquely the bottle sealer. Such means may be for example a unique number or ID, a RFID tag etc. Alternatively, there are two tags (8) in the fastening means, one that remains in the fastening means, and another which may be detached and kept with the consumer.

In another embodiment, one or more of the stripes (2) also comprises an identification tag (5). Such tag may be used to identify the consumer of the bottle or other identification information. Alternatively, such tag (5) also comprises an identification means corresponding to the identification means of the tag (8) of the fastener (6), so the consumer may identify that the set comprised by the closing means (1) stripes (2) and the fastening means (6) was not separated one from another. Although the invention has been described in relation to a particular embodiment, those skilled in the art may develop many variations of structural details and expand the aforementioned invention for other types of applications, without, however, deviating from the principles of the invention. For example, the various elements shown in the particular embodiment can be combined in a manner not illustrated in the drawings. Hence, the attached claims must be interpreted as covering all the equivalents that are within the scope and character of the invention.