WO2010109481A2

WO2010109481A2 - Instant jewelry

Info

Publication number: WO2010109481A2
Application number: PCT/IN2010/000165
Authority: WO
Inventors: Varuna Dipak Jani
Original assignee: Varuna Dipak Jani
Priority date: 2009-03-24
Filing date: 2010-03-19
Publication date: 2010-09-30
Also published as: WO2010109481A3

Abstract

The invention provides a necklace (200) which enables easy changes of the designs so that it is compatible with the various clothing and jewelry of the user. The necklace which comprises a neck portion (210), a central portion (220) and detachable elements (230) adapted on the neck portion and the central portion to connect the neck portion with the central portion vertically by forming a part of the design pattern of the necklace so as to maintain the flow of the design provided over the central portion.

Description

TITLE

INSTANT JEWELRY

FIELD OF INVENTION:

The present invention generally relates to jewelry and more particularly to necklaces.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:

Jewelry, preferably necklaces are commonly used and worn by girls, ladies and women. Generally, necklaces have one or more strands permanently or detachably attached at opposite ends with a necklace clasp. The conventionally available necklace are in chain form or may contain a chain for wearing around the neck and an attractive design or patterns (herein after referred to as design) at the central portion having as shown in Fig 1. These designs may comprise natural and/or synthetic gems, precious and/or non-precious gem-stones; pearls studded in polymeric materials, precious metals such as silver, gold, platinum etc. or only precious metals with various designs and are heavy. The drawback of conventional necklaces with design is that the designs are permanently attached with the neck portion of the necklaces and are expensive and generally not exchanged often or as desired by user.

Further drawback is that the color scheme or the conflagration may not be compatible with the wearer's clothing or other jewelry, thereby restricting the usability of the necklace available with the user as they are single piece.

Further there are some patents are available such as US Patent Publication No. 2004/0011079 disclosing interchangeable jewelry system which allows only to exchange color combination and can not be use for the heavy type of designs disclosed in Figure 1 and requires flow maintaining i.e. stability of the design by avoiding entangling and also requires secure connection.

Hence, there is a need for a necklace which enables easy changes of the designs so that it is compatible with the various clothing and jewelry of the user.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An objective of the invention is to provide a necklace having a plurality of designs portion which is able to detachably lock with the neck piece to form different necklaces with the same neck piece.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a necklace comprising a neck portion having a strand to be worn around the back of neck; a central portion having a design pattern; and detachable means having first longitudinal detachable element adapted transversely and hingedly on each end of the neck portion and a second longitudinal detachable element at the each end of the central portion for connecting the central portion with the neck portion detachably to form a single piece necklace wherein said detachable means held the central portion in vertical position by forming a part of the design pattern of the necklace thereby maintaining the flow of the design pattern.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to various embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.

Figure 1 shows a necklace in the prior art.

Fig. 2 shows a necklace in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2A shows a detachably locking means in the necklace in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION:

Reference will now be made in detail to. presently preferred embodiments of the invention, one or more examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Each example is provided by way of explanation, not limitation, of the invention. It is to be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the present discussion is a description of exemplary embodiments only, and is not intended as limiting the broader aspects of the present invention, which broader aspects are embodied in the exemplary constructions. In fact, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications and variations can be made in the presentinvention without departing from the scope and spirit thereof. For instance, features illustrated or described as part of one embodiment may be used on another embodiment to yield a still further embodiment. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers such modifications and variations as come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents. Further, it will be understood that, although the terms first, second, central etc., may be used herein to describe various elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. Thus, a first element discussed below could be termed a second element without departing from the teachings of the present invention.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention. As used herein, the singular forms "a," "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising," when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described herein with reference to cross-section illustrations that are schematic illustrations of idealized embodiments (and intermediate structures) of the present invention. As such, variations from the shapes of the illustrations as a result, for example, of manufacturing techniques and/or tolerances, are to be expected. Thus, exemplary embodiments of the present invention should not be construed as limited to the particular shapes of regions illustrated herein but are to include deviations in shapes that result, for example, from manufacturing. Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

The invention provides a necklace which enables easy changes of the designs so that it is compatible with the various clothing and jewelry of the user.

In general, the present invention provides a necklace which comprises a neck portion, a central portion and detachable elements adapted on the neck portion and the central portion to connect the neck portion with the central portion vertically by forming a part of the design pattern of the necklace so as to maintain the flow of the design provided over the central portion.

According to the present invention, the neck portion comprises a strand to be worn around the back of the neck and first longitudinal detachable element adapted transversely and hingedly on each end of the neck portion. The strand of the necklace portion can be hingedly connected to at one end or both ends of the first longitudinal detachable element or to the center of the first longitudinal detachable element. Further, the neck portion may comprise a design between the stand and first longitudinal detachable element matching with the design provided in the central portion of the necklace. According to the present invention, the central portion of the necklace comprises a design pattern having second longitudinal detachable element at both ends. The design referred in the description is not only limited to design, it may comprise various patterns made by using various metals, gems, or the like. Further, the central design portion may comprise a plurality of portions detachably connected to each other allowing user to change the design as per his/her needs.

Referring to Fig 2, a necklace (200) includes a neck portion (210), a central design portion (220) and detachable means (230) for detachably connecting the central design portion (220) to the neck portion (210).

The neck portion (210) as shown in Fig 2 to be worn around the back of the neck comprises a design pattern (211) adapted between the second longitudinal detachable element (232) and the strand (not shown).

The central design portion (220) is detachably connected to the neck portion (210) using detachable means (230). The central design portion (220) comprises a design pattern (222) matching with the design pattern (211) provided on the neck portion (210) of the necklace (200) along with second longitudinal detachable elements (231) adapted at ends of the design pattern (222). The design pattern (222) can be selected by the user.

Figure 2A shows one embodiment of the detachable means (230) comprising first and second longitudinal detachable elements (231, 232). The first longitudinal detachable element (231) has a plurality of male connectors (242) projecting out from a curved element (246) to be connected to the end of strand (not shown) of the neck portion (210). The second longitudinal detachable element has a plurality of female connectors (244) provided on the curve element (248) adapted on the end of central design portion (220). The female connectors (242) snap fittingly receive corresponding male connectors (244) releasably.

In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, the first longitudinal detachable means includes a pipe having a longitudinal slit enclosed at bottom end and the second longitudinal detachable means includes a slider sliding through the slit. The pipe and the slider may be curve. The detachable means of the present invention connects the neck portion with the design pattern by forming a part of the design.

According to the present invention, a locking means may be provided for securely locking the detachable portion of the necklace. The locking means (not shown) can be a ring provided on one of the detachable element fixing in the slot provided on the another detachable element or can be tab resiliency adapted on one of the detachable elements which can get lock in the hole provided on the other detachable element for lockingly engaging the detachable elements. Further, the locking means can be any means known to the person skilled in the art to lock the two parts of the jewelry.

The vertically adapted detachable means ensures the flow of necklace without disturb. The present invention allows the user to change the design of the necklace by just exchanging the design without the person skilled in the art. It also reduces the expenses of the user by allowing users to buy only a new central design portion or exchange a central design portion of the necklace with earlier one.

While the invention has been described with reference to an exemplary embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for detachable elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention i.e. providing longitudinal locking arrangement to maintain the flow of the design pattern of the necklace. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention under the description of the invention with the accompanying figures, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims:

Claims

1. An necklace comprising:

a neck portion having a strand to be worn around the back of neck;

a central portion having a design pattern; and

detachable means having a first longitudinal detachable element adapted transversely and hingedly on each end of the neck portion and a second longitudinal detachable element at the each end of the central portion for connecting the central portion with the neck portion detachably to form a single piece necklace wherein said detachable means held the central portion in vertical position by forming a part of the design pattern of the necklace thereby maintaining the flow of the design pattern.

2. The necklace as claimed in claim 1, further comprises a locking means for securely locking the detachable portion of the necklace.

3. The necklace as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first longitudinal detachable element can comprise one or more male connectors and the second longitudinal detachable element comprising female connector for each male connector to receive the male connector snap-fittingly or vice versa.

4. The necklace according to claim 1, wherein the first longitudinal detachable element is a closed end pipe having a longitudinal slit and the second element is a slider sliding through the said longitudinal slit.

5. The necklace according to claim 1, wherein the strand of the necklace portion can be hingedly connected to at one end or both ends of the first longitudinal detachable element or to the center of the first longitudinal detachable element.

6. The necklace as claimed in one of the claims 1-4, wherein the central portion may be a single design or two or more portions detachably connected to each other allowing user to change the design as per his/her needs.

7. The necklace as claimed in claim one of the claims 1-4, wherein the neck portion may comprise a design at the both ends between the strand and the first connector.

8. The necklace as claimed in the claim 2, wherein the locking means can be a ring provided on one of the detachable element fixing in the slot provided on the another detachable element

9. The necklace as claimed in the claim 2, wherein the locking means can be tab resiliency adapted on one of the detachable elements which can be get lock in the hole provided in the other detachable element for lockingly engaging the detachable elements.

10. A necklace as herein described with reference to the foregoing description and accompanying drawings.