US 5,294,114 AGranted

Game paddle and combination

AssigneeOddzOn Products, Inc.

InventorScott H. Stillinger

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Abstract

A game paddle and a game combination wherein the paddle reacts with an impacting aerial object to cause the same to rebound along an axis generally approximating the axis of impact.

Drawings

Claims8

Dependent claims

A game paddle for use with an aerial object such as a ball, comprising:

a frame including a hoop and a handle joined to the hoop, the hoop having an interior expanse extending thereabout and forming the perimeter of an opening encompassed by the hoop,
an elongate slot extending along said interior or expanse of the hoop, the slot having opposed sides,
a stretchable and resilient sheet spanning said opening in the hoop, said sheet having a marginal expanse lying within said slot between the opposed sides of the slot, and
anchor structure anchoring the sheet to the hoop with the sheet extending inwardly from the slot as a substantially planar expanse over said opening, said anchor structure comprising an elongate rod extending along the hoop and positioned outwardly on the hoop from said slot, and a reversely turned portion of said sheet which fits about said rod.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

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Abstract

A game paddle and a game combination wherein the paddle reacts with an impacting aerial object to cause the same to rebound along an axis generally approximating the axis of impact.

Drawings

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Drawings

Claims8

Dependent claims

A game paddle for use with an aerial object such as a ball, comprising:

a frame including a hoop and a handle joined to the hoop, the hoop having an interior expanse extending thereabout and forming the perimeter of an opening encompassed by the hoop,
an elongate slot extending along said interior or expanse of the hoop, the slot having opposed sides,
a stretchable and resilient sheet spanning said opening in the hoop, said sheet having a marginal expanse lying within said slot between the opposed sides of the slot, and
anchor structure anchoring the sheet to the hoop with the sheet extending inwardly from the slot as a substantially planar expanse over said opening, said anchor structure comprising an elongate rod extending along the hoop and positioned outwardly on the hoop from said slot, and a reversely turned portion of said sheet which fits about said rod.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Description1,774 words

Summary718 words

#This invention pertains to game apparatus, and more particularly, to a unique game paddle and to a combination thereof with an aerial object such as a ball and the like.

#Paddles, rackets, aerial objects and various games associated therewith have existed in myriad forms for many years--witness the tennis racket and tennis ball, badminton racket and birdie, squash racket and squash ball, ping pong paddle and ping pong ball, and so on, to form a long list of familiar entries. There is even in the known prior art patent literature a proposal for a baseball practice fielding bat wherein a stretch of taut rubber spans a hoop in a paddle frame--see U.S. Pat. No. 3,048,399.

#An important characteristic of all of these devices in the prior art related field is that a selected paddle or racket is intended to produce highly controlled rebound of a related impacting aerial object. In particular, in the known art, what might be thought of as the rebound expanses in paddles are designed whereby rebound after impact approximates a performance where the axis of rebound is generally substantially a mirror image of the axis of impact (relative to a line which is normal to the usual nominal plane of the rebound expanse). It is this widely used rebound characteristic which enables, in each of the specific paddle/aerial object areas of interest, controlled, highly predictable play.

Brief description of the drawings4 figures

#FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a game paddle constructed in accordance with the present invention.

#FIG. 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary section, taken generally along the line 2--2 in FIG. 1, illustrating details of construction.

#FIGS. 3 and 4, which schematically illustrate what is referred to herein as the rebound expanse in the paddle of the invention, also illustrate the combination of such paddle with a substantially non-self-bouncing aerial object as the same collides with the paddle along two different incoming axes of impact.

Detailed description932 words

#Turning attention now to the drawings, and with reference first of all to FIG. 1, indicated generally at 10 is a game paddle constructed in accordance with the present invention. This paddle includes a frame 12 having a hoop portion 12a and a handle portion 12b, and a stretchy, elastomeric, woven-fabric web 14 which includes a rebound expanse 14a that spans the area circumscribed by hoop portion 12a.

#Referring to FIG. 2 along with FIG. 1, according to a currently preferred method of making paddle 10, frame 12 is formed, as by molding from plastic, with two complementary facing frame components 16, 18 which are brought together during the final manufacture of the paddle and bonded to one another as by gluing. Along the outer perimeter of hoop portion 12a, the confronting faces of components 16, 18 abut one another. Along the inner perimeter of the hoop portion, the confronting frame components define a slender channel shown at 20 in FIG. 2. Between the confronting faces is an open region or passage.

#While various woven-fabric web materials may be used in a paddle according to the invention, the product sold under the trademark designator LYCRA.RTM., a multi-directionally stretchy interlock material has been found to offer quite superior performance.

Abstract

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Claims8

Abstract

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Claims8

Description1,774 words

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Classification4 codes

Life of this patent

Description1,774 words