#1 Door Guard. The following Example is provided for educational purposes only in connection with the informational Guide:

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1 Example Provisional Patent Application #1 Door Guard This Provisional Patent Application was eventually re-written and filed as a utility (non-provisional) patent application in the U.S. Patent Office. The patent was eventually granted as US Patent No. 6,196,623 The following Example is provided for educational purposes only in connection with the informational Guide: Courtesy of: Registered U.S. Patent Attorney Endurance Law Group PLC CONTACT: JON SHACKELFORD JSHACK@ENDURANCELAW.COM OFFICE: +1 (517) W. MICHIGAN AVE., STE. 501 JACKSON, MI 49201

2 CLOTHING PROTECTOR ATTACHMENT TO AUTOMOBILE DOOR SILL BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The exterior surfaces of an automobile are often soiled with dirt, mud, snow, road salts and other debris. These soils often collect most predominately along the lower rocker panel surfaces of the automobile where the tires tend to discharge. Upon entering and exiting the passenger compartment of the automobile, it is frequently unavoidable for one's clothing, such as a pant leg or overcoat, to brush against the outer edge of the door sill and the underlying rocker panel. This causes a transfer of the soils collected along the outer edge of the door sill onto the person's clothing. Such occurrences may result in permanent damage to the clothing, and at the very least will increase in the required cleaning frequency of the clothing. To help reduce the collection of soils along the exterior of the automobile, the prior art has long taught the use of fender attached mud guards to block and deflect discharge from the front tires. While this treatment is somewhat effective, it will not completely prevent the collection of soils along the outer edge of the door sills and the underlying rocker panels. Hence, it is inevitable that a person's clothing will become soiled as a result of contact with the dirty automobile exterior. Furthermore, mud guards are considered unattractive by many people and can spoil the aesthetic appearance of the automobile exterior. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the Figures, an automobile is generally shown at 10 in Figure 1. Doors 12 are hinged upon the automobile 10 to swing between open and closed positions and enclose a passenger compartment. The passenger compartment includes a floor 14 covered with a carpettype material. Seats 16 are securely fastened to the floor 14 in typical fashion, next to the doors 12. Directly below the doors 12 are the conventional auto body rocker panels 18. A notch-like ledge is interposed between the rocker panels 18 and the floor 14. This ledge is sometimes referred to as the door sill 20. Commonly, a plastic or metallic trim strip 22 covers the cut edge Provided for educational purposes only by: Page 1

3 of the carpeting on the floor 14, and extends the entire length of the door opening adjacent the door sill 20. The trim strip 22 is secured to the floor 14 with threaded fasteners 24. The exterior surfaces of the automobile 10 can easily become soiled with dirt, mud, snow, road salts and other debris. These soils often collect most predominately along the door sills 20 and the rocker panels 18 where the tires tend to discharge. Upon entering and exiting the passenger compartment of a typical prior art automobile, it is frequently unavoidable for one's clothing, such as a pant leg or overcoat, to brush against the outer edge of the door sill at the edge of the soiled rocker panel. This causes a transfer of the soils onto the person's clothing. A clothing protector assembly is provided for extending beyond the outer edge of the door sill 20 and the underlying rocker panel 18, to provide a buffer against which a passenger's clothing is held away from the dirty door sill 20. The clothing protector assembly includes a base, generally indicated at 26, which is attached to the automobile 10 adjacent the door sill 20. A guard, generally indicated at 28, extends from the base 26 for projecting beyond the door sill 20 and the underlying rocker panel 18 to protect a passenger's clothing from soil transfer upon ingress and egress from the automobile 10. A retractor, generally indicated at 30, interconnects the base 26 and the guard 28 for automatically extending and retracting the guard 28 relative to the base 26 in response to the door 12 moving between its open and closed positions. The base 26 may take any one of various mechanically expedient forms, but in the preferred embodiment comprises an L-shaped extrusion made of metal or high-strength polymer. As perhaps best shown in Figure 4, the base 26 is composed of a flat bottom plate 32 and a flat back plate 34 which is perpendicular to the bottom plate 32. The bottom plate 32 and back plate 34 may be coextensive, extending between a left or first end 36 and a right or second end 38. The corners and edges of the base 26 can be rounded to prevent snagging garments and the like. A fastener is provided for attaching the base 26 adjacent the door sill 20. Preferably, the fastener comprises two or more of the same threaded fasteners 24 securing the trim strip 22 to the floor 14. However, if the OEM fasteners 24 are too short or not oriented properly, other types of fasteners can be used. Provided for educational purposes only by: Page 2

4 The guard 28 includes a guard rail 40 extending between first 42 and second 44 ends, which ends 42, 44 ends correspond to the first 36 and second 38 ends of the base 26. As shown in the Figures, the guard 28 can be of the same length as the base 26, and similarly fabricated from an L-shaped extrusion made of metal or high-strength polymer. In this form, the guard rail 40 includes a flat top plate 46 and a flat front plate 48 which is perpendicular to the top plate 46. The retractor 30 preferably includes a first inner arm 50 moveably connected near the first end 36 of the base 26 and a second inner arm 52 moveably connected near the second end 38 of the base 26. Similarly, a first outer arm 54 is moveably connected near the first end 42 of the guard rail 40 and a second outer arm 56 is moveably connected near the second end 44 of the guard rail 40. The first and second inner arms are connected to the first and second outer arms 54, 56 so that the guard rail 40 moves between its extended and retracted positions in a generally horizontal plane. However, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate various and alternative designs, linkages or mechanisms to move the guard rail 40 between its extended and retracted positions in response to the door 12 opening and closing. In the preferred embodiment, the retractor 30 also includes a first stationary spring 58 operatively acting between the base 26 and the first inner arm 50 and a second stationary spring 60 operatively acting between the base 26 and the second inner arm 52. A first ambulating spring 62 operatively acts between the first inner arm 50 and the first outer arm 54 in biasing the guard rail 40 toward the extended position. Similarly, a second ambulating spring 64 operatively acts between the second inner arm 52 and the second outer arm 56, in concert with the first ambulating spring 62, to urge the guard rail 40 toward its extended position. Preferably, the first 58 and second 60 stationary springs are of the helically-coiled torsion type including a fixed end and a deflecting end. An anchor 66 is operatively connected to the fixed end of each of the first 58 and second 60 stationary springs for restricting movement thereof relative to the base 26. As best shown in Figure 4, the anchor 66 can simply be a tangential extension of the spring coil wire from each of the first 58 and second 60 stationary springs which reacts against the back plate 34. The respective anchors 66 are positioned at the top portion of the first 58 and second 60 stationary spring coils, and face toward one another. By orienting the Provided for educational purposes only by: Page 3

5 anchors 66 at the top of the stationary spring coils 58, 60, the deflecting ends of the respective stationary spring coils 58, 60 can project tangentially from the bottom of the coils and thereby provide compact space advantages upon movement to the retracted position, as shown in Figure 3. The first 58 and second 60 stationary springs may be secured to the bottom plate 32 of the base 26 by a large-headed rivet or other type of post 68. In this manner, the first 58 and second 60 stationary springs are free to wind and unwind upon their respective posts 68 while the anchors 66 restrain the fixed end of the springs 58,60 to permit storage and release of energy. The first 50 and second 52 inner arms are attached directly to the respective deflecting ends of the first 58 and second 60 stationary springs and thus are moveably connected to the base 26. Similarly, each of the ambulating springs 62, 64 are of the helically-coiled torsion type including both upper and lower deflecting ends. The first 62 and second 64 ambulating springs may be provided with a greater number of coil turns than the first 58 and second 60 stationary springs to make them slightly less stiff or less resistive to torsional flex than the stationary springs 58, 60. This is to ensure proper folding of the inner and outer arms upon retraction, as shown in Figure 5. The first 50 and second 52 inner arms respectively extend from the lower deflecting ends of the ambulating springs 62, 64. The coil turns of the first ambulating spring 62 are wound in an opposite rotary direction (counterclockwise) from the coil turns of the first stationary spring 58 (clockwise), whereas the coil turns of the second ambulating spring 64 are wound in an opposite rotary direction (clockwise) from the coil turns of the second stationary spring 60 (counterclockwise). The first 54 and second 56 outer arms extend integrally from the respective upper deflecting ends of the first 62 and second 64 ambulating springs. Again, this is to provide maximum compaction or nesting upon movement to the retracted position, as shown in Figure 3. Referring to Figure 4, each of the first 54 and second 56 outer arms includes an aperture 70, 72, respectively, for pivotally connecting to the respective first and second ends of the guard rail 40. The apertures 70, 72 may be formed by simply bending a length of the respective outer arms 54, 56 into a hook. Alternatively, the apertures 70, 72 may each be formed in a loose piece which are subsequently attached to the ends of the outer anns 54, 56. A rivet 74 or some other form of Provided for educational purposes only by: Page 4

6 fastening element may be used to secure the apertures 70, 72 to the under surface of the top plate 46. Additionally, a washer (not shown) may be required between the hook and the top plate 46 to reduce friction and wear. The connection between the hook and top plate 46 must have sufficient clearance to permit pivotal movement between the guard rail 40 and the respective outer arms 54, 56 to allow free movement of the guard rail 40 between its extended and retracted positions. In the preferred embodiment, the first stationary spring 58, the first inner arm 50, the first ambulating spring 62 and the first outer arm 54 are all fabricated from a single continuous length of spring wire. Likewise, the second stationary spring 60, the second inner arm 52, the second ambulating spring 64 and the second outer arm 56 are all fabricated from a single continuous length of spring wire. In this manner, the respective arms need not be attached to the springs in a separate fabrication processes and inventories of individual components are avoided. As shown in Figure 5, the (fixed) distance between the first 58 and second 60 stationary springs is always greater than the (variable) distance between the first 62 and second 62 ambulating springs. This is to ensure that the arms collapse properly as the guard rail 40 is pressed by the door 12 toward its retracted position. Also, this construction will allow the clothing protector assembly to stow compactly inside the passenger compartment of the automobile 10 when the door 12 is closed. The clothing protector assembly may further include an elongation, generally indicated at 76' in Figure 6. In the alternative embodiment of Figure 6, parts or elements corresponding to those described above in connection with the preferred embodiment are indicated by the same reference number plus a prime designation. The elongation 76' adjusts, i.e., extends or contracts, the distance between the first 42' and second 44' ends of the guard rail 40' so that door openings of various automobiles and dimensions can be adequately accommodated. For example, a twodoor body style automobile will require a longer guard rail 40' to provide protection for the passengers entering and exiting the rear seat area as well as the front seat area passengers. However, a much shorter length guard rail will generally suffice for a four-door model automobile. Provided for educational purposes only by: Page 5

7 The elongation 76' may take the form of a sectional guard rail 40'_ where the guard rail 40' includes a first section 78' adjacent the first end 42' and a second section 80' adjacent the second end 44'. An extension slot 82' is formed in the second section 80' and a large-headed pin 84', extending from the first section 78', is slidably disposed in the extension slot 82'. This arrangement allows the first 78' and second 80' sections to slide relative to one another, thereby selectively adjusting the length of the guard rail 40'. Preferably, the base 26' is also made as a sectional unit including a slot 86' and a pin 88' to provide concerted length adjustment with the guard rail 40'. By permitting the length of the base 26' to be altered, it is more feasible to utilize the OEM fasteners 24' in their existing holes to secure the base atop the trim strip 22'. In this manner, the preformed holes in the bottom plate 32' can be readily aligned with the existing fastener holes in the trim strip 22. In operation, the guard rail 40 is held in the retracted position of Figure 3 by the closed door 12. In this position, the clothing protector assembly is compactly nested with the base 26 and guard rail 40 forming a housing-like enclosure around the springs and arms. When the door 12 is opened, the stored energy in the stationary 58, 60 and ambulating 62, 64 springs is released, thereby forcibly moving the guard rail 40 toward its extended position, as shown in Figures 1 and 2. In this position, the combined resistance of the four springs is sufficient to hold passengers' clothing away from the soiled outer edge of the door sill 20 and underlying rocker panel 18. However, when the driver side automobile door 12 is closed, as shown in Figure 5, the first end 42 of the guard rail 40 is initially contacted and forced toward the base 26. This causes the guard rail 40 to momentarily pivot about the rivet 74 in the aperture 72 of the second outer arm 56 as the first inner 50 and outer 54 arms collapse about the first ambulating spring 62, shown in phantom. This continues until the door 12 is parallel to the guard rail 40, at which time the second inner 52 and outer 56 arms begin to collapse about the second ambulating spring 64. By separately collapsing the first and second sides, lower stresses are placed on the components. Of course, the retracting operation is carried out with the oppositely described components (i.e., left Provided for educational purposes only by: Page 6

8 vs. right) when the clothing protector assembly is mounted on the passenger side of the automobile 10. * The End* Provided for educational purposes only by: Page 7

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