FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a combined greeting and gift card.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

Greetings cards are designed to be given to mark special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas and the like. The cards may be sent by mail, or they may be given to the intended recipient in person. The greetings card will typically carry words, numerals and images to represent the occasion, for example an eighteenth birthday card will typically bear the words "Happy Birthday", the number "18" and one or more images representing celebrations.

Some greetings cards carry a badge, the badge being intended to be removed and worn by the recipient, perhaps for much of his or her birthday. It is also known for a greetings card to carry a balloon which can be removed by the recipient and inflated, the balloon carrying words, numerals and/or pictures representing a particular birthday (for example).

It is also known for a greetings card to have a gift secured thereto (e.g. by adhesive), in particular in the form of a gift token or voucher which the recipient can remove and redeem at a particular store (or range of stores). The gift token may replicate a credit card and have means to maintain a record of its value and the transactions made by the recipient. Combined greeting and gift cards are known, i.e. cards which are intended to be given to a recipient to mark a particular occasion, and which carry an article or gift which can be removed and retained by the recipient. Particular combined greetings and gift cards are disclosed in US 1 ,143,729, GB 2,144,371 , GB 2,417,709, AU 2009100342, AU 2006100521 , and US 2003/034268. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The inventor provides a combined greeting and gift card which carries a particular type of gift, and which improves upon the known combined greeting and gift cards.

According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a combined greeting and gift card having a front panel adapted to bear insignia representing a chosen occasion, an internal panel adapted to bear a greeting to the recipient, and a receptacle adapted to contain a gift, the receptacle being mounted to the front panel.

Preferably, the receptacle is at least partially formed from a transparent material, the gift being visible through a front wall of the receptacle. Desirably, the receptacle is at least partially formed from a sheet of transparent thermoformed plastic material.

Preferably, the receptacle has a front wall and a back wall, with a space between the front wall and back wall for storing the gift. Desirably, the back wall is at least partially removable to open the receptacle and allow the gift to be accessed and removed from the card.

Preferably, the back wall of the receptacle is of a different material to the front wall. Accordingly, the front wall of the receptacle can be of transparent plastics material and the back wall can be of paper-based material. It is therefore not necessary to cut or rip the plastics material in order to access and remove the gift. In such embodiments, the front wall and side wall(s) of the receptacle can be of transparent plastics material, ideally thermoformed, the side wall(s) having a peripheral lip by which the receptacle is mounted to the front panel. Preferably, the combined greeting and gift card has a back panel connected to the front panel, with the peripheral lip located between the front panel and the back panel. Thus, it is not intended that the receptacle be removed from the card in order to remove the gift, but rather the receptacle remains in place and the gift is removed from the receptacle. The receptacle is therefore preferably securely mounted to the front panel so that it cannot be removed without damage to the combined greeting and gift card. According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a combined greeting and gift card having a front panel adapted to bear insignia representing a chosen occasion, an internal panel adapted to bear a greeting to the recipient, and a receptacle adapted to contain a gift, the receptacle having formations adapted to engage and support the gift, the formations being deformable and resilient.

The deformable and resilient formations allow the receptacle to retain gifts of varying dimensions relatively securely. Alternatively stated, gifts of varying dimensions can be contained within the receptacle with relative movement of the gift being resisted. The gift is therefore presented to the recipient (and to the purchaser) in a predetermined position relative to the front panel.

In a preferred embodiment the gift is a case for a mobile telephone. It is known that mobile telephones are of different sizes and the cases for the 'phones are of similarly differing sizes. It is desirable to be able to provide a single design of combined greeting and gift card for a plurality of differently-sized mobile 'phone cases, without the smaller cases moving about within the receptacle. It will be understood that if a gift can move relative to the receptacle it will be presented to the recipient in an uncontrolled position and orientation, perhaps reducing the aesthetic appeal of the combined greeting and gift card to the recipient (and purchaser).

The provision of formations which can engage and support the gift is also advantageous in limiting the relative movement of the gift during transportation (which movement might damage the gift and/or the card prior to delivery to the recipient). The provision of deformable resilient formations is beneficial in that differently-sized gifts can be engaged and supported by varying the degree of deformation of the formations. Preferably the receptacle is substantially oblong in front view, the term "substantially" allowing the inclusion of embodiments having an oblong shape with rounded corners for example. Usually, the oblong will be in "portrait format", i.e. oriented with the longer side walls upright when the combined greeting and gift card is viewed normally (i.e. in the orientation of Fig.1 ). The portrait format of the receptacle, and the fitted gift, will therefore match the orientation of a typical mobile 'phone, for example. Desirably, there is at least one formation. A formation can for example be arranged along one of the longer side walls of a substantially oblong receptacle. Alternatively, two formations are provided, one along each of the longer side walls of an oblong receptacle, and which can support a gift against movements towards each of the longer side walls. It will be understood that, depending upon the size range of the gifts to be contained in the receptacle, embodiments having one formation, or two formations with one along each of the longer side walls, cannot necessarily prevent or limit all movements of a gift relative to the receptacle, and are therefore not preferred. Alternatively, one formation can be arranged along a longer side wall and another formation arranged along a shorter side wall of a substantially oblong receptacle. It can be arranged that the fitted gift engages the two formations and the other two side walls of the receptacle (i.e. the two sides without the formations). Such a receptacle can support a range of differently-sized gifts against movements in all directions.

Preferably, however, there are four formations, one along each of the four side walls of a substantially oblong receptacle. Each of the formations engages the gift and together they support the gift within the receptacle, limiting movements in all directions. The deformability and resilience of the formations does, however, allow some movement of the gift within the receptacle as might be encountered by severe impacts for example. Ideally, the receptacle is mounted to the front panel of the card. The receptacle is therefore visible to the purchaser and also to the recipient (when removed from an envelope or wrapping). Preferably the receptacle according to the second aspect is transparent. A transparent receptacle serves two purposes. Firstly, it allows the gift to be visible to the recipient within the receptacle. Secondly, it allows an image to be printed onto a surface of the card behind the receptacle, which image is visible to the recipient. The image can if desired surround the gift so that no blank space is visible around the gift. Additionally, the image can continue behind the gift so that it may be visible when the gift has been removed. In the latter embodiments the image may replicate the gift so that the card has a similar appearance whether or not the gift has been removed. According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided a combined greeting and gift card having a front panel adapted to bear insignia representing a chosen occasion, an internal panel adapted to bear a greeting to the recipient, and a receptacle adapted to contain a gift, the receptacle having an aperture to allow the machine-reading of data upon the gift.

Preferably, the receptacle has a back wall and the aperture is located in the back wall.

The invention according to this aspect is particularly suited to a combined greeting a gift card in which the gift is a token having machine-readable data such as a bar-code. Such a token typically bears an image on its front surface and machine-readable data on its back surface. It is desirable for the image to be visible to the user, i.e. facing the front of the card, and it is necessary to provide an aperture in the back wall of the receptacle for the retailer to be able to scan the data (e.g. bar-code) at the point of sale.

Preferably, the receptacle is at least partially formed from a transparent material so that the token is visible through a front wall of the receptacle. Providing an aperture in the back wall allows the back wall of the receptacle to be of a different material to the front wall, for example an opaque material such as a paper-based material, without detriment to the machine-reading of the data of the token. Such a token is often in the form of a semi-rigid plastics material having embedded data (similar to a credit card or the like). Whilst such a token is often referred to as a "gift card", the term token is used herein to distinguish from the combined greetings and gift card to which all aspects of the invention are directed. Desirably, the combined greeting and gift card has a back panel connected to the front panel, the back wall of the receptacle being provided by a part of the back panel. In common with embodiments according to the other aspects of the invention, at least a part of the back wall can be removed to allow access to the gift within the receptacle; ideally the aperture is located within the removable part of the back wall.

It will be understood that embodiments of the invention may be made according to one or more of the aspects of the invention, and features of the respective aspects may be combined with features of other aspects with which they are compatible.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention will now be described in more detail, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig.1 shows a perspective view from the front of the combined greeting and gift card according to the first and second aspects of the present invention;

Fig.2 shows a perspective view of the combined greeting and gift card of Fig.1 in an opened condition; Fig.3 shows a perspective view of the components of the combined greeting and gift card of Fig.1 during assembly;

Fig.4 shows a rear view of some of the components of Fig.3;

Fig.5 shows a front view of the combined greeting and gift card of Fig.1 ;

Fig.6 shows a side view of the combined greeting and gift card of Fig.1 ; Fig.7 shows a perspective view from the front of a combined greeting and gift card according to the first and third aspects of the present invention; and

Fig.8 shows a perspective view of the components of the combined greeting and gift card of Fig.7 during assembly.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The combined greeting and gift card 10 comprises a front panel 12, an internal panel 14 and a receptacle 16. In known fashion, the front panel 12 will typically carry a message and/or image(s) relevant to a chosen occasion (such as a birthday), the message therefore being visible to the purchaser of the card 10 and also to the recipient when the card is removed from its envelope or wrapping (not shown).

Also in known fashion the internal panel 14 may carry a message and/or image(s) relevant to the chosen occasion, and will include space allowing a personal message to be inserted for the recipient (such as the name of the recipient and the name of the person giving the card 10).

The receptacle 16 for the gift (which is not shown) is mounted to the front panel 12 and in this embodiment projects from the front panel. The receptacle is therefore visible to the purchaser and to the recipient. It will be understood that in less-preferred embodiments the invention could be configured so that the receptacle is not visible until the card is opened.

The receptacle 16 is substantially oblong, and is oriented in portrait format. Thus, the card 10 is designed to be oriented as shown in Fig.1 , with the fold line 20 between the front panel 12 and internal panel 14 substantially vertical. It will therefore be understood that the words, numerals and/or image(s) which are printed onto the card 10 are designed to be read in this orientation. The invention could alternatively be embodied in a card having a substantially horizontal fold line in use, but the orientation as shown is particularly well suited to the portrait format of a case for a mobile 'phone (not shown) which the receptacle 16 is designed to accommodate.

The receptacle 16 has four formations 22, each of which comprises an indentation or notch in one of the respective side walls of the receptacle. The receptacle 16 is made as a thermoforming or transparent plastics material, ideally styrene. It will be understood that such a material is transparent and resilient, and the receptacle is made from a sufficiently thin sheet of material to allow the formations to deform resiliency. It will be understood that in this embodiment the dimensions of the receptacle 16 (in particular its depth and the dimensions between the opposing formations 22), are chosen to match the dimensions of the cases for a chosen range of mobile 'phones, for example the range of 'phones comprising the iPhone® 5, 5S, 6 and 6S. Specifically, it is arranged that the minimum dimensions of a case which can be supported within the receptacle 16 is H _min x Wmin (see Fig.5), suitable dimensions for H _min and W _min being approximately 1 13 mm and approximately 60 mm respectively.

It is arranged that the formations 22 can all be deformed by a dimension D (Fig.5), so that the maximum dimensions of a case which can be supported within the receptacle 16 is (H _min + 2D) x (W _min + 2D). A suitable dimension for D is approximately 7.5 mm. It is not necessary that all of the formations be identical and deformable to the same degree, and it could for example be arranged that the formations on the longer sides are deformable by a greater dimension than the formations on the shorter sides (or vice versa), to match the desired range of gift sizes. Also, in other embodiments, fewer than four notches can be provided, for example a notch may be provided only along one, two of three of the side walls of the receptacle.

It will be understood that there is no adjustability in the spacing between the front wall and the back wall of the receptacle 16. Such adjustability is not usually necessary in practice since 'phone cases for example are of common (or at least very similar) thickness. Also, even if the spacing between the front wall and back wall of the receptacle 16 exceeds the thickness of the gift by several millimetres, the aesthetic appearance of the combined greeting and gift card 10 is not adversely affected by relative movement of the gift towards or away from the front wall.

Fig.1 shows the assembled card 10 without a case or other gift within the receptacle 16. That is not a realistic situation, since the gift will ideally be inserted during the manufacture of the card as explained below. Fig.1 therefore shows the back wall 24 of the receptacle which will normally be hidden by the gift. Ideally, at least a portion of the back wall 24 will also carry an image(s) so that the region behind the gift within the receptacle is decorated similarly to the front panel 12. This is particularly beneficial when the card 10 is used with the smallest gift, since an area of the back wall 24 will be visible to the purchaser and recipient and a visible blank surface is not desirable.

Also, it is desirable that the combined greeting and gift card 10 be retained for display by the recipient after the gift has been removed. The back wall 24 can carry a similar image to, or a continuation of the image of, the front wall 12, so that the appearance of the card 10 is not diminished when the gift is removed. Alternatively, the back wall can carry an image of the gift so that the appearance of the front of the card is similar whether or not the gift has been removed. Fig.2 shows the opened card 10, and it will be understood that the card will be opened by the purchaser to insert a greetings message onto the internal panel 14, and subsequently by the recipient to read the greetings message. Opening the card 10 also permits the recipient to open the receptacle and remove the gift.

Fig.2 shows the card 10 during opening of the receptacle 16. The surface 26 is a closure panel for the receptacle 16, and has a ring of perforations 30 allowing it to be easily removed by the recipient. When the closure panel 26 has been removed the gift can be removed from the receptacle 16. In an alternative to perforations, adhesive may be used to secure the closure panel.

It will be understood that the surface 26 comprises part or all of the back wall 24 of the receptacle 16, i.e. the gift is removed from the card by removing a part or all of the back wall of the receptacle.

The structure of the card 10 will be more fully understood by reference to the partially-assembled views of Figs. 3 and 4.

As seen in Fig.3, the card 10 is constructed from a single sheet of card (for example having a weight of 240 gsm) and a transparent thermoformed plastics insert 28. The plastics insert 28 provides the front wall and side walls of the receptacle 16. A lip 34 projects from each of the side walls of the plastics insert.

The sheet of card has two fold lines 20 and 32 which separate the sheet into a front panel 12, a back panel 40 and the internal panel 14. An aperture 42 is formed (usefully by die cutting) in the front panel 12. A small "D-shaped" aperture 44 is formed in the back panel 40, and the ring of perforations 30 which is connected to the aperture 44 is also formed in the back panel 40. As seen in Fig.4, a ring of adhesive 46 is applied to the back panel 40, around the ring of perforations 30 and aperture 44. A similar ring of adhesive (not shown) is applied to the front panel 12, around the aperture 42. The sheet of card and the plastics insert 28 are then assembled together by passing the insert 28 through the aperture 42.

The gift, in this embodiment a mobile 'phone case, is inserted into the plastics insert 28, deforming the formations 22 as required so as to accommodate the gift. The back panel 40 is then folded about fold line 32 so that the lip 34 is sandwiched between the front panel 12 and the back panel 40, the adhesive securing the front panel 12 and the back panel 40 together with the lip 34 therebetween. The back panel 40 thereby encloses the gift and the part of the back panel which provides the back wall 24 completes the receptacle 16.

It will be understood that the D-shaped aperture 44 allows the recipient to insert a fingernail or the like underneath the edge of the closure panel 26 and to remove the closure panel as shown in Fig.2, permitting removal of the gift.

In an alternative embodiment, the perforations 30 do not form a complete ring so that the closure panel 26 is designed to remain with the front panel 12 after the gift has been removed. It can be arranged that the closure panel is returned to its initial position, so that the image printed onto the back wall 24 is visible from the front of the card 10. The aesthetic appeal of the card is therefore not significantly reduced when the gift has been removed.

In the alternative embodiment of Figs. 7 and 8, the combined greeting and gift card comprises a front panel 112, an internal panel 114 and a receptacle 1 16. This embodiment is very similar to the embodiment of Figs. 1 -6 and only the differences will be described.

The receptacle 1 16 of this embodiment is designed to accommodate a gift token (not shown). Since the size and shape of many gift tokens are known and standardised (and typically match the size and shape of a credit card), the plastics insert 128 which provides the front wall and side walls of the receptacle 1 16 is made closely to match that size and shape, and does not therefore have formations to accommodate differently-sized gifts. The closure panel 126, which provides at least a part of the back wall 124 of the receptacle 1 16, has an aperture 50 which exposes a part of the token within the receptacle 116. Thus, in common with the embodiment of Figs. 1 -6, whilst the front and side walls of the receptacle 1 16 are transparent, the back wall is provided by a part of the back panel 140 and is therefore opaque. Gift tokens are, however, known to carry machine-readable data on their back surface and the retailer requires access to that data at the point of sale. The aperture 50 is positioned to overlie the machine-readable data (typically a bar-code) so as to permit the data to be read at the point of sale.

The aperture 50 is in this embodiment wholly located within the closure panel 126.