1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to containers, specifically to plant receptacles used in combination with freestanding devices that have a pole and a base stand, such as a floor lamp.
2. Background of the Invention
Common freestanding fixtures such as floor lamps, floor fans, coat stands, hat stands, and patio sun umbrellas come equipped with a pole and a base stand. Often the base stands provided with such fixtures have at least one if not both of the following problems. Firstly, the base stands are too small or too lightweight to offer sufficient stability from accidental tip-over if bumped. Secondly, the base stands are often aesthetically incompatible with the home or office décor.
Previously, prior art designs mitigated the aforementioned problems by creating a contact buffer to keep foot and pet traffic away from the freestanding fixture. Additionally, prior art designs lessened the effect of an aesthetically incompatible base stand of a freestanding fixture by providing a receptacle to contain beautiful plant life or flowers and to serve as a visual alternative.
Usually, construction of a contact buffer and a visual alternative involved placing multiple units of the conventional planters or prior art around or adjacent to the base stand, or affixed to the poles, of the freestanding fixture. This method tends to clutter and crowd floor space, thus creating a trip hazard. Also, this method tends to be expensive if base stands of several freestanding fixtures in a room need contact buffers or need visual alternatives created around them.
Prior art designs that attempted to create a contact buffer or visual alternative around the freestanding fixture ignored the need to actually stabilize the fixture should it nevertheless get bumped. Furthermore, prior art designs additionally ignored the need to economize or tidy the floor space in a room.
Many people enjoy decorating household, office, or outdoor areas with plants or ballast held in a container. Prior art designs that attempted to integrate containers with freestanding fixtures tend to be fixture-specific such as a table-top planter for a patio umbrella assembly or a mail box planter for mail boxes with square posts.
Consequently, the prior art is adaptable only to specific types of fixtures, requiring that a different type of planter be used for each different type of fixture. This creates aesthetic disharmony in a given room or outdoor setting.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,539,665 issued on April 2003 to Llona discloses a planter having a vertical rabbet for conformably engaging a generally upright elongated member.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,976 issued on February 1996 to Hammond discloses a tray designed to fit around the midsection of an umbrella pole type table, and serve condiments.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,799,972 issued on July 1957 to Teixeira discloses a vessel for growing orchids and other rhizomatous plants.
U.S. Pat. No. D386,114 issued on November 1997 to Carson discloses an ornamental design for a tree collar planter.
U.S. Pat. No. D480,986 issued on October 2003 to Taylor discloses a post planter disengageably attached to a support post of a deck or porch. The post planter is attached at any height along the support post, and is made of two sections that wrap around the support post, and are held by clips at the top and a mounting mechanism that is attached to the support post.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,459 issued on July 2000 to Conner discloses a vase container for use with a table umbrella assembly. The vase includes a two-part lightweight plastic construction where the respective halves are secured to an upright table umbrella pole.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,615,543 to Palsrok discloses a wire basket arrangement held together by wires, which is not capable, absent a liner or other material, of holding soil, ballast, or other material. The Palsrok device, having an inherently lightweight open wire structure, does not appear to be designed to stabilize freestanding structures, but rather is shown stabilizing earth stabilized structures such as flagpoles.
U.S. Pat. Application 2004/0216376 to Missry discloses a planter device, but the design would make it difficult or impossible to position around a freestanding fixture with pole and a base without disassembling the pole from the base.
Until now, prior art planter inventions have failed to simultaneously stabilize, aesthetically harmonize, and decorate freestanding fixtures. Attempts made by most prior art inventions have marginally addressed only one of the three aforementioned functions or advantages. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,539,665 to Llona, U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,976 to Hammond, U.S. Pat. No. 2,799,972 to Teixeira, U.S. Pat. No. D386,114 to Carson, U.S. Pat. No. D480,986 to Taylor and U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,459 to Conner, each has only provided a container with which to decorate a fixture, that partially or wholly surrounds the pole of a particular fixture.
The aforementioned inventions could not be useful in stabilizing and concealing a base stand of a freestanding fixture. In fact, some of the aforementioned prior art aggressively seek stability from the pole or post of a fixture itself by means of nails, brackets, clips, or other permanent attachments.
To create a contact buffer, Teixeira's invention would require an assembly of several units; even so, this would still not stabilize the base stand of a freestanding fixture. In addition, using multiple planter units arrayed about a freestanding fixture would pose a trip hazard or crowd and clutter floor space.
A closer look at FIGS. 7 and 8 of U.S. Pat. No. D386,114 to Carson and FIG. 11 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,976 to Hammond, show a portion of a uniformly vertical sidewall that defines a gap for admitting a vertical elongate member. The vertical uniformity of the gap illustrates the inability of these prior art devices to substantially surround the lower portion of a pole and the entire base stand of a device such as a floor lamp. Even if these two prior art devices were made large enough to envelop both the pole and base stand of a floor lamp, for instance, the resulting massive lateral u-shaped gap would not provide ornamentation or stability to the base stand of a freestanding fixture such as a floor lamp. Consequently, if the fixture was bumped, Carson's and Hammond's inventions would not restricts lateral movement of the base stand enough to deter the fixture from overturning if the fixture were to fall in a direction aligned with the gap.
Carson's invention serves only to decorate by providing a plant-growing container adapted to poles of items already stabilized by a subterranean anchor, such as a tree planted in the ground. Hammond's invention serves only as a utility container adapted to poles of items already stabilized by a patio umbrella assembly.