Lockable Cap for Medical Prescription Bottle
AssigneeGatekeeper Innovations, Inc.
InventorJoseph C. SIMPSON
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A lockable cap, is a security feature for a medical prescription bottle. There is a three dial locking mechanism that is attached to the cap and the dial locking mechanism and the cap can be attached or removed from the bottle only when the user has the correct combination on the dial lock.
Claims17
A cap lock attachable to a bottle comprising:
- a housing having a cap portion and a base portion, said cap portion having an upper surface with a plurality of first gaps therein, said housing including;
- an alignment spacer device mounted within said housing;
- a rotatable dial lock mounted within said alignment spacer device, said rotatable dial lock having numeric cogs and cams in mechanical relationship with each other to allow the numerical cogs to spin independently and be settable to a plurality of settings;
- a dog plate, mounted to said housing for free rotation in the housing, said dog plate having a set of gear teeth that allow at least one point of contact with a locking plate to exert sufficient tension to remove the cap portion;
- the locking plate having a plurality of second gaps in alignment with the plurality of first gaps whereby the numeric cogs are held in place by the plurality of first gaps and the plurality of second gaps, the locking plate being pivotally mounted to said alignment spacer device and movable between a locked position and an unlocked position;
- the locking plate being in the unlocked position when the numeric cogs are set to a predetermined setting, and being in the locked position when the numeric cogs are set to a settings other than the predetermined setting;
- and
- the locking plate having a reset access so that the predetermined setting can be reset when the locking plate is in the unlocked position and the reset pin being blocked by an arm of the locking plate when said locking plate is in said locked position so that the predetermined setting cannot be reset.
A method for operating a cap lock attached to a bottle, the cap lock having a housing having a cap portion and a base portion, the cap portion having an upper surface with a plurality of first gaps therein, an alignment spacer device and mounting the alignment spacer device within the housing, a rotatable dial lock, mounted within the alignment spacer device, having numeric cogs and cams in mechanical relationship with each other to allow the numeric cogs to spin independently and be settable to a plurality of settings, a dog plate attachable to said bottle and having free rotation in the housing and having a set of gear teeth that allow at least one point of contact for a locking plate to exert sufficient tension to remove said cap and a locking plate pivotable mounted to said alignment spacer device wherein the locking plate has a plurality of second gaps aligned with said plurality of first gaps whereby said numeric cogs are held in place by said plurality of first gaps and said plurality of second gaps and the locking plate being movable between a locked position and an unlocked position, the method comprising:
- moving the locking plate to the unlocked position when the numeric cogs are at a predetermined setting;
- pivoting the locking plate, when the locking plate is in the unlocked position, to engage the dog plate to exert sufficient tension to remove the cap;
- moving the locking plate to the locked position when the numeric cogs are not at the predetermined setting;
- preventing, by an arm of the locking plate, a reset of the predetermined setting when the locking plate is in the locked position;
- and
- resetting the predetermining setting of the numeric cogs when the locking plate is in the unlocked position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.