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Counter-top bag

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/876,166 filed on Dec. 21, 2006, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The present invention relates generally to bags with mouth opening devices, and more particularly to techniques for collared counter-top bags.

It is often difficult to keep open the mouth of an unstructured bag, such as a plain polymeric bag, etc., while placing objects into the bag. For example, holding a large polymeric lawn bag open while filling the bag with leaves may be a difficult task to perform, especially because of a tendency for the mouth of the bag to collapse.

Techniques have been developed to keep the mouth of the bag open while filling the bag. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,494,619 issued to Sulpizio on Dec. 17, 2002 (the '619 patent), discloses a mouth opening device to overcome the collapsing tendency of the mouth of the bag. As disclosed in the '619 patent, the mouth opening device may be a generally ring-shaped collar for maintaining the mouth of the bag in an open position and the collar's height may be 8-10 inches with larger bags (e.g., 20-30 gallon bags) or may be 1-2 inches with smaller sized bags.

However, while such techniques maintain the mouth of the bag in an open position, other difficulties may arise from associated bag structures as disclosed in the '619 patent. For example, because the bag structures use a relative shorter collar, the bag may be unable to stand when placed on the ground or some other supporting surface. Also, the mouth of the bag may need to be repeatedly pulled up every time when filling the bag, thus make it undesirable to be used in indoors with limited spaces, such as on a kitchen counter. Further, when the bag is filled with objects, the bag structures with a relative shorter collar may be unable to prevent the bag from tipping, thus may cause undesired spillages.

Methods and systems consistent with certain features of the disclosed embodiments address one or more of the problems set forth above.

One aspect of the present invention includes a counter-top bag having a mouth. The counter-top bag may include an unstructured bag and a collar. The unstructured bag may have at least a bottom and a mouth. The collar may be coupled to the unstructured bag such that the collar and the mouth of the unstructured bag form the mouth of the counter-top bag. Further, a ratio between a height of the collar and a height of the unstructured bag is configured in a desired range such that the counter-top bag is capable of standing with the mouth in an open position when the counter-top bag is in one of an empty condition and a filled condition.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an exemplary counter-top bag consistent with the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows an empty exemplary counter-top bag consistent with the present invention; and

FIG. 3 shows a filled exemplary counter-top bag consistent with the present invention.