Insulated self-righting cup holder

Prior art for patent 2020/0398726 (inventors are Edward Frye and Ethan Cating) hereafter referred to as “Frye/Cating” was published on Dec. 24, 2020. Application for this patent was filed on May 31, 2020, 15 days before the application was filed for this invention. Frye/Cating describes a gyroscopic cup holder designed to specifically fit into the OEM cup holder of a motorized vehicle to maintain the vertical orientation of the invention. The Frye/Cating drawings specifically reference elements designed to reduce vibration caused by the movement of the vehicle that Frye/Cating is attached to. Frye/Cating is not a free-standing invention, it does not provide insulating properties, and it is not designed to be used outside of a vehicle environment. Without the OEM vehicle cup holder support, Frye/Cating has no useful function. Unlike Frye/Cating, the invention described in this patent application does not require any external attachment or vertical support, nor should it be used inside a moving vehicle. Therefore no vibration reduction as per Frye/Cating is required. The invention is free-standing and does not require any external support or attachment in order to function as described. Also unlike Frye/Cating, insulation to maintain a beverage's preferred temperature is provided by the invention without attachment to an external cooling or heating source. The invention provides insulation to both cold and warm beverages, keeping them either cold or warm compared to ambient temperatures.

• An invention described by prior art for patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,888B1 (inventor is Kenneth Castillo) hereafter referred to as “Castillo” was published on Jun. 24, 2003. Castillo describes a cup holder that is essentially a maleable bean bag. A beverage vessel is meant to be attached to the invention using an “elastomeric opening” in the invention's cover that presumably seals tightly enough around the beverage vessel to hold it in place. The weighted beads inside the fabric cover are meant to do two things:
• 1) stabilize the invention on the surface it is resting on, and 2) allow the held beverage vessel to stay upright, even on inclined surfaces. Castillo depends entirely on the beads inside the cover to adjust to an irregular or inclined surface at the bottom while the top of the beads remains level to support the beverage vessel in a vertical orientation. Castillo has no provision for beverage insulation as the beads only serve the function of stabilizing the invention. They do not provide any insulation of the beverage vessel itself as they do not surround the beverage vessel in anyway. Furthermore, it appears that once attached to the invention, it is not an easy operation to remove the beverage vessel from the invention without some effort. This effort could in fact defeat the purpose of the cup holder by spilling the contents of the beverage vessel. The only similarity between Castillo and the invention is the wide, weighted base using beads. Unlike Castillo, the invention does not rely on the user “molding” the invention to the surface it is resting on in order to keep the beverage vessel upright. The success of which is entirely dependent on the user's skill in molding the beads. The invention uses the internal gyroscopic cup holder to keep the beverage vessel upright and does not rely on the user at all. The insulating beads are loosely packed enough to move as the cup holder moves (eg. self-righting). Unlike Castillo, this invention offers insulation of the beverage vessel by surrounding the vessel with insulating beads. The weighted beads are used exclusively for stabilizing the invention and are separated from the insulating beads by a bead separator membrane. Unlike Castillo, the invention does not require that the invention “grip” the beverage vessel in any way. The beverage vessel is simply placed in the gyroscopic cup holder and can be easily removed without spilling the beverage. No elastomeric orifice gripping is required to hold the beverage vessel in place.
• In summary, there are patented inventions that utilize gyroscopic cup holders (ie. Frye/Cating, U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,843) but none of them are designed to be free-standing and/or insulating. There are also patented inventions that offer free-standing cup holders (ie. Castillo, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,312,436, 4,964,600, 7,568,362), but none of them utilize a gyroscope to keep the beverage vessel upright in combination with insulating properties. The invention is unique in providing both the self-righting capabilities of a gyroscopic cup holder AND the free-standing benefits of a bean bag cup holder along with insulating capabilities usually lacking in both existing approaches to the problem.