Container having time, day, date or dose indicator

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] This invention relates to containers such as those for medicine and pills and, in particular, to an indicator for selectively indicating a time, day, date or dose on the container or cap.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Persons who must take medicine or pills at various times of the day or on certain dates may find it difficult to remember the last time that a dose or a pill was taken. There are numerous patents on caps with special windows or timers to keep track of the time of the last dose or pill taken. However, all of these techniques require a non-conventional cap that must be purchased. As a result of this extra effort and expense, such time/dosage indicators have not been commercially viable.

[0003] Examples of prior art caps, which are incorporated herein by reference, include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,766,882; 2,767,680; 5,299,701; 3,960,713; 4,641,759; 3,151,599; 4,345,541; 5,386,795; 4,749,093; 6,003,467; 4,432,300; 4,528,933; and 6,068,149.

[0004] Thus, what is needed is a time/dosage indicator that does not suffer from the above-mentioned drawbacks.

SUMMARY

[0005] An elastic O-ring or flexible collar indicator is described that fits snuggly around the periphery of the cap or the neck of a conventional pill container. This O-ring or collar has printed or marked on it suitable indicia, such as days of the week, hours of the day, or days of the month. If the indicator is secured around the neck of the container, the cap is marked with a pointer, and the user rotates the cap so as to point to the appropriate day or time on the O-ring or collar. In one embodiment, the user turns the cap to point to the time, day, or date of the last dose taken.

[0006] If the O-ring or collar indicator is placed around the cap, the bottle itself will have a pointer marked on it.

[0007] In one embodiment, the cap is the type that includes a child-proof ratchet mechanism inside the cap, where the cap can be rotated in discrete steps if the cap is not pushed down to engage the ratchet. In another embodiment, friction between the cap and the container prevents the cap from freely rotating.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an elastic O-ring having time intervals or days printed around its periphery.

[0009]FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional medicine bottle.

[0010]FIG. 3 illustrates the bottle of FIG. 2 having the O-ring of FIG. 1 fitted around its neck and the cap marked with a pointer to point to the hour or day that the last pill was taken.

[0011]FIG. 4 is an embodiment where the O-ring is fitted around the cap itself, and a pointer is marked on the bottle.

[0012]FIG. 5 is an example of a flexible plastic collar that may be fitted around the neck of a bottle or a cap.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0013]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an elastic O-ring <b>10</b> sized to fit snuggly around a conventional plastic cap <b>12</b> (FIG. 2) or neck of a conventional plastic container <b>14</b> of the type that contain pills or other forms of medicine. O-ring <b>10</b> is typically made of rubber, neoprene, or other known elastic material. In one embodiment, the inner dimension of O-ring <b>10</b> is 1⅜ inch and the outer dimension is 2 inches.

[0014]FIG. 3 illustrates O-ring <b>10</b> fitted around the neck of container <b>14</b> so as to not freely rotate. Cap <b>12</b> is a conventional child-proof cap that has a ratchet assembly within the cap and requires one to push down on the cap in order to engage the ratchet and rotate the cap off of the neck of container <b>14</b>. Examples of a ratcheted cap are described in the prior art identified above and need not be described in detail.

[0015] When the cap is not pushed down, but is rotated, the ratchet and pawl assembly does not engage, and the cap rides over the ridges of the ratchet and sets in discrete positions as the cap is rotated. The time/date indicia on O-ring <b>10</b> is spaced so that a pointer <b>16</b> marked on cap <b>12</b> aligns with each successive indicia as the cap is rotated without pressing down on the cap. Pointer <b>16</b> may be either printed on the cap or just marked with a marker or tape by the user. After the user has taken a pill at, for example, 5:00 o'clock, the user replaces the cap and rotates the cap so that pointer <b>16</b> aligns with the time of 5:00 o'clock marked on O-ring <b>10</b>. The markings on the O-ring <b>10</b> may also correspond to days of the week or days of the month or other intervals. In this manner, the user knows when the last pill has been taken. In another embodiment the pointer <b>16</b> would be replaced with pointer <b>18</b> as shown in FIG. 4 and the o-ring <b>10</b> would be snug but loose enough to be rotated in order to align the desired indicia with pointer <b>18</b>.

[0016]FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment where O-ring <b>10</b> is placed around cap <b>12</b>, and a pointer <b>18</b> is marked directly on container <b>14</b>.

[0017] Any generally ring-shaped elastic indicator may be used instead of O-ring <b>10</b>, such as the plastic ring <b>20</b> in FIG. 5, which is sized to fit around the neck of container <b>14</b>. The embodiment of FIG. 5 is marked with the days of the week on the top surface but could be just as well marked on the vertical surface as illustrated by O-ring <b>10</b>.

[0018] Many other embodiments of replaceable indicators that secure to conventional bottles and caps are also envisioned by the inventor. The present invention allows the indicator to be removed from one container or cap and placed on a different container or cap. The replaceable indicator may come in various sizes and may be packaged in a variety pack so that one purchase may provide all the indicators that the user will ever need.

[0019] While particular embodiments of the invention have been described herein, other embodiments will become obvious to those skilled in the art, and the invention is limited only by the following claims.