Gumball Machine Example

In the example below, the attorney starts out with a general overview of an inventive gumball machine. Note that the inventive feature(s) need not be addressed at this early stage.

Figure 1 generally depicts gumball machine 1 having a gumball reservoir 10 (gumballs not shown), a dispensing stage 20, a visualization stage 30 and a base 40. The general design has similarities to existing gumball machines such as that shown in U.S. patent no. 5452822, and to avoid needless duplication of text, U.S. patent no. 5452822 is incorporated herein in its entirety.

After describing the apparatus broadly, the attorney then goes on to discuss in separate paragraphs each of the components just listed.

Reservoir 10 is similar to that known in the art. It is usually made of a clear plastic and has a more or less spherical shape, although other materials and designs are also contemplated. Advertising or other designs may be included on or within the plastic. Reservoir 10 is held in place by a tensioning rod 12, which connects dispensing stage 20 with a cap 14. Nut 16 is threaded and mates with threads on the upper end of the tensioning rod 12.

Dispensing stage 20 includes a gumball selecting mechanism (not shown) for selecting individual gumballs from the reservoir 10, and releasing them from chute 22. Such gumball selecting mechanisms are well known in the art. Stage 20 also includes a coin accepting mechanism 24 with hand crank 26, which is also well known in the art. Stage 20 may be entirely transparent, entirely opaque or anywhere in between.

Visualization stage 30 preferably includes a transparent plastic housing 32 and a transparent plastic funnel 34. The transparency is not absolutely necessary, and housings and funnels which are translucent, colored, opaque or partly covered with designs or advertising are also possible. Funnel 34 may have many different sizes and dimensions, depending on the overall size and shape of visualization stage 30, the size and mass of the gumballs, and the desired gumball path(s). Simple frusto-conical funnels are known in other fields, including piggy banks in which a coin travels a spiral trajectory while descending to a storage area. Other funnels and/or other surfaces may be used as well, including those having various bumps, ridges or other distortions.

An optional central tube or support (not shown) may also be used to assist in structural stability of the gumball machine 1, or to provide a passage through which deposited coins can fall to a coin box in base 40. Alternatively, deposited coins can remain in a coin box (not shown) within dispensing stage 20, they can simply fall through visualization stage 30 to a coin box (not shown) in base 40, or they can themselves be launched onto funnel 34, or a different funnel, and be captured in a coin box (not shown) in base 40.

Base 40 functions primarily to support the gumball machine 1, to provide a dispensing port 42 for dispensing gumballs, and in some embodiments to provide a storage area for deposited coins.

In practice, a customer would insert a coin into the coin accepting mechanism 24 and operate the crank 26. A gumball selecting mechanism (not shown) would then remove at least one gumball from the reservoir 10. The selected gumball(s) would then travel to chute 22, where it(they) would be trajected onto the funnel 34 with sufficient velocity to follow a spiral path such as path 50. The required velocity may be obtained by dropping the selecting gumball(s) a given distance, or by running them along a track, inside dispensing stage 20. Finally, the selected gumball(s) would be dispensed at dispensing port 42. As noted above, inserted coins may also travel from the coin accepting mechanism 24 to the coin box (not shown) by traveling through or along the inner surface of funnel 34. There may even be multiple funnels, such as a coin funnel stacked within or outside of the gumball funnel.