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Travel bag with stowable seatTravel bag with stowable seat description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20090159385, Travel bag with stowable seat. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
This invention relates to a travel bag, in particular a carry-on bag, having a stowable seat to support the weight of a sitting adult. It is common for modern travelers to have with them at all times a travel bag, known as a “carry-on” bag, with their personal effects. In many cases, travelers will have no checked baggage and will rely on having all of their effects in a single carry-on bag. Such travel bags, to qualify as carry-on bags, must be of relatively small size in accordance with regulations or travel industry practice, so that they can be safely stowed, for example in overhead bins on airplanes. Such regulations and practices usually establish maximum height, length and width dimensions for such bags. To maximize capacity in accordance with such constraints, many travel bags are specifically designed in a generally right rectangular prism shape and sized to meet such dimensional standards. Although relatively small compared to suitcases intended as checked luggage, carry-on bags can nevertheless transport a significant quantity of goods and can be fairly heavy and for some people can be difficult or awkward to handle. To assist in their handling, many carry-on bags (such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,954 to Nordstrom) are provided with wheels along a bottom edge and a retractable or telescoping handle adjacent an upper edge of the bag, generally on the same side of the bag as the wheels. The combination of a telescoping handle and wheels allows the traveler to easily move the bag, usually by pulling but sometimes by pushing. Modern travel, particularly by air, often requires lengthy waits, for example at various transportation hubs, such as airports, waiting in lines or for connections. In many situations, seating is either not provided or, with over-crowding, is not available. In such situations, it would be desirable for a traveler to have the option of sitting or resting on his or her carry-on bag, but typical carry-on bags are not capable of or comfortable for such use. Like any other type of luggage, carry-on bags can be made of a variety of materials. Although some such bags are made of rigid materials and may comprise a hard shell case capable of bearing a person\'s weight, they are not necessarily designed to be sat upon and, as a result, may be unstable, uncomfortable or awkward to use, especially in the start-and-stop environment of a moving line-up. In addition, many carry-on bags are made from non-rigid fabrics, such as nylon, canvas, leather and the like. Although in some cases internal stiffeners or stiffening material (e.g. made from metal, plastic, foam or even cardboard) can be used to provide some at least semi-rigid support, shape and structure to carry-on bags, they are typically not capable of bearing the weight of a sitting person without crushing the contents of the bag. In addition, they may also suffer from the problems of instability, lack of comfort and awkwardness of use. In recognition of at least some of these problems, various travel bags have been proposed to incorporate a seat structure for the convenience of a traveler. For example, various proposals have been made (e.g. as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,644,447 to Pohl, U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,313 to Lenz et al, French patent no. 2,834,431 to Le Bret Brigitte, PCT publication no. WO 9803096 to Nakagawa, PCT publication no. WO 03099056 to Tamura) to provide a seat which can deploy from the side of a travel bag or case to extend to a horizontal position away from the bag, to be supported by a suitable brace structure extending back to the bag or by legs which contact the ground. There can be various difficulties with such structures. For example, they can be relatively mechanically complex, involving various moving parts which are susceptible to damage, wear or failure, and thus relatively costly to manufacture and maintain. In addition, given that the overall size of the bag will have to be constrained to meet the requirements as a carry-on bag, the presence of such mechanical components may reduce the effective carrying capacity of the bag. Moreover, some of the exposed elements of the mechanical system may catch on, or interfere with, nearby objects or in some cases even be somewhat hazardous, which may render the bags unsuitable or unsafe as carry-on bags. In addition, in some designs, the seating arrangement can suffer from stability problems because the weight of the person will not necessarily be centered over a stable base. Some other designs have been proposed that would specifically allow a child to sit on the top of a travel bag (e.g. as shown U.S. patent publication no. 2004/0066069 to Caldana). Such designs suffer from the problem that an adult may not be able to sit on the luggage without crushing its contents. In addition, the seat arrangement can interfere with access to or use of the telescopic handle or access to the top of the bag (e.g. to grab a handle or open a zippered compartment) and not easily or conveniently operable to change from an in-use position to a convenient storage position. In some structures (e.g. as shown in French patent no. 2302066 to Durand), seats for adults or children are attached to vertical supports extending away from the bag or case, which greatly interfere with the ability of the bag or case to function as carry-on baggage. Some have proposed seats which can move from a stowed position on the front or back of a bag to an in-use position on top of the bag. For example, U.S. publication no. 2007/0007801 to Bishop discloses a specially designed travel bag featuring an inverted U-shaped telescoping handle in which the legs are relatively widely separated. Slots are defined on the inside of each leg. A seat is fitted between the legs and slidably held in the slots by pins. The seat is operable to move up and down and rotate while restrained by the slots. U.S. Pat. No. 7,097,017 to LaCrosse et al discloses a seat pivotally attached to linkages pivotally attached to the sides of the bag. Such designs are relatively complex and may thus be more susceptible to damage, wear or failure, and thus relatively costly to manufacture and/or maintain. Finally, it is noted that many of the above-noted prior art designs require specially engineered structures which are incapable of being, or at least not easily adaptable to be, applied to substantially conventional travel bags with conventional wheel, storage compartment or telescoping handle arrangements. The inability to use conventional components will tend to increase the cost of such travel bags. In light of all the above, there remains a need for a travel bag with a comfortable seat that will be capable of bearing the weight of an adult, that is convenient to operate and mechanically reliable and that may be adapted to be used with conventional travel bags or travel bag components. The present invention provides a travel bag having a storage compartment with opposed support members either side of said storage compartment, each support member defining an upper rear corner area, and a seat pivotally attached to the support members adjacent the upper rear corner areas, operable to pivot from a stowed position adjacent a rear face of the storage compartment to an operating position between upper edges of the support members. The present invention also provides a seat structure, for use in association with a travel bag to be attached thereto, the structure having opposed support members connected by a cross-bracing structure, said support members adaptable to be fitted around the sides of the travel bag, each support member defining an upper rear corner, and, a seat pivotally attached to the support members adjacent the upper rear corners, operable to pivot from a stowed position adjacent a rear face of the travel bag to an operating position between upper edges of the support members. Preferred embodiments of the present invention are illustrated in the attached drawings, in which: Continue reading about Travel bag with stowable seat... Full patent description for Travel bag with stowable seat Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Travel bag with stowable seat patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Travel bag with stowable seat or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Energy absorber and system Next Patent Application: Method and device of luggage identification and reinforcement Industry Class: Trunks and hand-carried luggage ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Travel bag with stowable seat patent info. 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