1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION:

The invention relates to a pen stand which is a type of office stationery object.

2. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:

Pen stand is an office stationary used to keep pen and other writing materials and is designed to be kept on table top. The conventional pen stand is a container having closed at bottom and open at the top. Pen and other writing articles are placed in the container through the opened top. Though pen stand is meant for keeping the writing materials such as pens, pencils, colour sketches, etc., users use it to keep some other office stationeries like pins, stapler, eraser, scissors, pen drive, etc are also. In such a pen stand, when we take pens from it, it is well possible to that the finger can get harmed due to the sharp edges of the sharp items such as pins, clips that are there in the container. It happens because the user may not see these small sized items when another item is casually taken from it. If the container is made of transparent material to avoid this problem, it may overcome the drawback of lack of visibility of the sharp edged objects inside the container, only if intentionally observed. Even in that case, if any shorter item, say eraser, is to be fetched from the container, it will often be needed to take all the items in the container out by turning the container upside-down; and form the fallen items, the required object, say eraser, need to be taken. After taking the needed object, say eraser, all items that were taken out must be again put back to the container to keep the place (table top) clean.

Conventional pen stands as mentioned earlier has many short comings. It is very difficult to take short length objects such as erasers, pencil sharpeners, etc. from within the pen stand. Moreover, the pins, clips and any sharp items present inside the container may harm the finger also. In this background, a new idea of pen stand is made to take care of the problems as mentioned above. The new design provides many more complementary advantages.

The present invention is directed to office stationery and more specifically to pen stand adapted to rest on the top of a desk or table for holding a plurality of office stationery objects such as pens, pencils, eraser, sharpeners, etc.

Prior Art:
There are many prior art in the field of pen stand, but none of them addresses the problems that are solved by the present invention, as understood from various patent documents.

Many of the designs of pen stand make variation in the way by which pens are held and in their appearance. There are different designs of multi-function pen stands which incorporate display devices such as digital clock and digital calendar along with pen keeping facility. There are pen stands having modular arrangements, but have the conventional design of multiple containers to hold pens and other stationeries.

There multiple patents on pen stands which are primarily ornamental in design and performs the single function of holding pen. The United States Patent D492720 discloses about the design of a pen holder that can hold more than one pen on separate holders that are provided on a spherical surface. The patent US D102232 S, 'Design for a pen stand' conveys about a single rotatable pen holder design. The US patent 1704248 A discloses a Fountain-pen stand to hold a fountain pen. The patent US 6332727 B1 reveals a Ballpoint pen stand decorated with twist dancing ornament.

The patent US 3176662 A is about Illustrator's pen-holder desk set and components thereof, that can hold a series of pens. The primary object in devising this pen-holder desk set and components for use therewith is to provide an ink containing pen-holder that is capable of holding a substantial quantity of ink, but with the flow of ink from the reservoir therein being controlled, whereby the penholder feels like a ballpoint pen when used.

The Pen stand said in the patent US 4969568 A is having modular construction fabricated from a plurality of flat board members detachably connected to each other by connecting members having a plurality of wing pieces disposed at a suitable angle relative to each other and provided with board member receiving grooves. The board members and connecting members may be assembled to function as a pen stand having many separate compartments. Each compartment can be used to hold different office stationery objects.

To the knowledge of the inventor, as understood from the patent documents, most of them are designed primarily as office ornamental object and none of these consider the aspect of safe usage of pen stand when multiple office stationery objects are placed in the pen stand.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION:

The above drawbacks suffered in prior art have been overcome by the present invention by using a two piece design of pen stand and not limited to ornamental function as is known in prior art.

The object of the invention is to provide compact space for office stationery objects such as pen, pencil, eraser, pencil sharpener, scissors, etc. in such a way that each object in the pen stand can be accessed safely and comfortably by the user.

The another object of the invention is to enable the access of every stationery object placed in the pen stand with single hand and without disturbing other items present in the pen stand.

The another object of the invention is to provide a compact design to accommodate the usual stationery objects such as pen, pencil, pin, paper clip, etc in separate space in a grouped fashion.

3. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:
The invention is now explained with respect to its application and design relating to office stationery object. The invention relates to a pen stand to hold pen and other office stationary objects which are conventionally stored in any conventional pen stand container. The device comprises of two functional parts viz. a shallow base and a top shoulder. The configuration is such that the top shoulder will be placed over the shallow base. This design is developed to overcome the problems that usually arise when humans use the conventional pen stand, thereby making the design safe and ergonomic for the intended usage. The developed ergonomic pen stand has a compact design to accommodate the usual office stationery objects such as pen, pencil, pin, paper clip, etc in separate space in a grouped fashion. This ergonomic pen stand can be fabricated with alternative materials economically. This design of ergonomic pen stand has a great advantage that every office stationery object placed in the pen stand can be accessed with single hand and without disturbing other items present in the pen stand.

4. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:

Figure 1 illustrates the front view the ergonomic pen stand

Figure 2 illustrates the top view the ergonomic pen stand

Figure 3 illustrates the isometric view of the ergonomic pen stand

Figure 4 illustrates the shallow base part

Figure 5 illustrates the view of the top shoulder piece when viewed at an angle from top side Figure 6 illustrates the view of the top shoulder piece when viewed at an angle from bottom side

5. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION:

The present invention relates to an ergonomic pen stand.

The description is given with respect to ergonomic pen stand meant for placing pen and other office stationary objects which are conventionally placed in any conventional pen stand container.

The device is referred herein as an "ergonomic pen stand" because this pen stand is designed for safe and comfortable use by common person rather than a different ornamental design. It is designed to overcome the problems that usually arise when humans use the conventional pen stand. The problems that arise when a common person use a pen stand is understood by carefully observing the way by which a common person uses a conventional pen stand and pen container.

The ergonomic pen stand comprises of three basic elements: a shallow base, a pillar and a top shoulder.

The front view, top view and the isometric view of the object are shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3 respectively.

The shallow base (1) is having a side wall (1a) having height just sufficient to prevent the articles in the base slip out of it. The shallow base element is shown in Figure 4. This part has a pillar (2) at the centre and a projection (2a) on the pillar. The projection on the pillar is a provision for insertion in a hole (7) in the top shoulder element co-axially to it. Figure 5 and Figure 6 show the views of the top shoulder piece when viewed at an angle from a top side and a bottom side respectively. The height of the pillar in the shallow base is provided such that there is sufficient gap (4) between the top of the shallow base and the bottom of the top shoulder. This gap is visible in Figure 1. This gap has an intentional purpose that the shorter objects such as erasers, pencil sharpeners, pen drive, etc. can be directly placed in the shallow base and can be comfortably viewed, accessed and taken out with hand.

The top shoulder (3) is clearly visible in the isometric view of the ergonomic pen stand in Figure 3.The top shoulder piece is having rectangular pocket (5). This pocket is designed for placing pins, clips etc. The depth of this rectangular pocket is such that pins and clip will slightly project out of it, thereby enabling easy picking of these objects from the pocket. Moreover, the size of this cavity is provided with such an intention that it will restrict the placing of other shorter objects such as sharpener, eraser, blade etc. in that rectangular pocket.

The top shoulder piece has plurality of curved cavities (6). Longer writing objects such as pens, pencil, etc. are to be placed through the top opening of these cavities. The bottom of the placed longer writing objects will be supported on the shallow base and the sides on these objects will supported by the side wall (6a) of the curved cavities. The curvature provided for the cavities has a special function. The curvature is designed with such a purpose that it will enable to automatically position the pen, pencil and other writing objects towards the outer edge of the top shoulder when these are placed casually. By this, these writing objects will always be evenly spaced in all the curved cavities. This even spacing will further add balancing of the pen stand. Moreover, if more pens are added to a curved cavity, the pens that are added last will be automatically collected towards the centre of the shoulder piece. That is, the last added pen/pencil goes to the centre and the underutilized pens will always be positioned automatically on the outer surface of the cavities. This arrangement of writing objects will unknowingly prompt the user to use the underutilized pens. That means, almost all the pens in the pen stand will be used almost in an equal fashion.

The multiple curved cavities (6) in the top shoulder (3) element provide a facility for the user to keep similar writing objects in a grouped or categorized fashion. Thus this arrangement facilitates the selection of the desired writing object quickly.

In the ergonomic pen stand developed and detailed as above, provides facility to place pen/pencil or any other lengthy writing objects through curved cavities (6) of the top holder (3). In this ergonomic pen stand, the shorter objects such as eraser, sharpeners, blade, pen drive, etc. can be directly placed in the shallow base (1). This ergonomic pen stand also provides the facility to place sharper and smaller objects such as pins, clips, etc. in the rectangular pocket (5) in the top holder.

The ergonomic pen stand thus developed and presented here thus overcomes many of the aforementioned problems of the existing pen stands by assembling two specially designed parts viz. shallow base and top shoulder. By providing these two parts and are assembled together facilitates comfortable access to the user to the shorter objects placed in the shallow base, the pen/pencil or any other lengthy writing objects placed through the top holder and the sharp and smaller objects placed in the rectangular pocket in the top holder. Thus it overcomes the difficulty with any conventional pen stand to take pin, blade, or any sharper and shorter items. As this design provides separate facility to place different office stationary objects and theses objects can be clearly visible and can be comfortably accessed, this design avoids the chance of hurting the finger of the user when these objects are accessed even casually. This design has a great advantage that every item placed in the pen stand can be accessed with a single hand without disturbing other objects placed in it. Thus the design becomes safe, compact and ergonomic. This product also has an inherent advantage that it enables the user to see the colour of ink and the level of ink in a pen through the gap between the top shoulder and the shallow base.

The ergonomic pen stand has many more other advantages due to its modular configuration:

• Cost in making the product by plastic injection moulding process becomes lower.
• The product can be made with alternative materials as required, to reduce the cost and improve the aesthetic appeal of the product
• The top part can be rotated about the shallow base. This will enable the curved cavity to be oriented towards the user, thereby picking of objects becomes easier.
• Packing of the product can be made compact for trading or transportation.
• The feasibility to rotate the top part provides an ornamental function also to the product.

The application discloses many features and embodiments for sake of understanding and illustrations.

But the invention is not limited by the examples, illustrations or embodiments but shall cover to an extent as will be understand by the skilled persons in the art.

The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments examples and illustrations are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.

6. CLAIMS
What is claimed is:

1. A configuration suitable for use as a pen stand or the like comprising a plurality of specially shaped elements that are disposed to define a configuration of one-above-the-other fashion, where there is a bottom element that is closed at base and having a shorter side wall, an intermediate element that is at least one longer member connects to the base and supports the top member, and a top element open at top and bottom and has plurality of compartments and has at least one pocket having opening at the top; where the said configuration of one-above-the-other fashion is such that there is sufficient gap between the said top and bottom elements and having overall height sufficient to support writing objects such as pen in inclined fashion.

2. The said elements in Claim 1 can be modular members having complimentary shapes to fit to each other to form an assembly.

3. The said elements in Claim 1 and 2 can be made with same or alternative materials.