Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
ARTIFICIAL TREE AS FRUIT BASKET
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an artificial tree as fruit basket for daily
household
service which is more effective and convenient to use, with high grade of
imitation and low cost for manufacture.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Fruit basket and artificial tree are both commonplace household articles.
Large amount of prior art has been endeavoring to combine them to enhance
the product in both functional and decorative aspects as presented below.
GB 1477158 (A) discloses an artificial tree with rings and hooks stemmed
from the branches or trunk to put or suspend fruit. All the fruits are held in
the
tree and there is no fruit holding provision at the bottom.
GB 2497306 (A) discloses an artificial plant with different forms of fruit
hanging provisions, such as nest, basket, hook, spoon-like shape, net, peg-
like
shape, to display fruits, vegetables and flowers. All the fruits, vegetables
and
flowers are held in the tree and there is no fruit holding provision at the
bottom.
US 6,854,609 B1 discloses a hanging fruit tree construction comprising a
circular base unit with raised side walls to receive fruits, a shaft unit, and
a
plurality of limb units with fruit stem engaging units. The fruit stem
engaging
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units are composed of a number of parts and cannot be used conveniently. The
connection of the dowels to the shaft unit by a recess makes it a weak design.
The limb units, mainly composed of straight rod dowels, are simply a hanging
structure by nature and can hardly be imagined to resemble the crown of a
tree. Even taken to form the crown of a tree, they lack twigs, leaves, or
flowers
and are poor in appearance. Nevertheless, they are inconvenient to use and
complex to make.
CN 201085437 Y discloses an artificial bonsai tree with hooks stemmed
from the branches to suspend fruits. The pot below the tree is not intended
for
fruits. All the fruits are held in the tree.
CN 202014943 U discloses a scenic bonsai like artificial tree with net bags
attached from the branches to hold fruits and a bowl at the bottom loaded
with pebbles, water, and fish. One may assume the bowl below the tree can be
used to hold fruits, however to do that one needs first to verify if the bowl
is
suitable for this purpose and second to get rid of the pebbles, water, and
fish
and third to figure out how to dispose of the pebbles and the fish. All these
are
not something obvious and easy for general users of the product.
Ascertainably it is intended only for ornament but utility. Eventually, fruits
can
only be held in the tree, more specifically, the net bags.
CN 105078117 A discloses an artificial tree as fruit rack with rings attached
to the branches to hold fruits. There is no fruit holding provision at the
bottom.
All the fruits are held in the tree.
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CN 105662045 A discloses a fruit plate with an tree-like rack stemmed from
the center of it. There have a plurality of leaf-shaped auxiliary fruit trays
on the
rack. Fruits can be held in the trays and the plate. The rack above the plate
can
not be regarded as an artificial tree due to its poor construction.
US D616,252 S, US D648,184 S, US D670,970 S, US D671,371 S, US
D697,374 Sand US D698,204 S disclose, nominally, designs of fruit bowl and
tree combinations. In fact what they provide are only wire made fruit bowl and
fruit hanging structure. Nothing like a tree can be found therein.
With the prior art quite some drawbacks can be found such as
ineffectiveness and inconvenience for use, lack of close imitation, and
difficulty
for manufacture. The reasons behind can be summarized as follows.
Firstly, fruit holding mechanisms in the prior art, such as ring, clip, hook,
net, peg, etc., if sized for single or a number of fruits, are inherently
inefficient
and inconvenient to use which limits the unit to be only suitable for special
events not daily use.
Secondly, fruit holding mechanisms in the prior art, such as leaf shaped
tray or a hanging bowl, if sized for a large number of fruits, when fruits are
being placed, weight load will be concentrated, caution has to be taken to
keep the balance of the unit.
Thirdly, this category of product for home use generally has limited size.
Plus the two reasons mentioned above, the quantity of fruit it can be used for
is also limited.
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Moreover, the structural material for branches/twigs of artificial tree is
typically plastic, wood, and wire. They are not intended for real fruit which
is
fairly heavy comparing to artificial leaves and artificial fruits/flowers. To
hold
real fruit in the tree, more specifically on the branches/twigs in the crown,
stronger structural material or construction has to be adopted. The
consequence is that the artificial tree loses imitation of a real tree and the
manufacture process becomes more costly.
Last but not least, these apparently man-made fruit holding mechanisms
are fairly visible to people. As a result, when not being used for real fruit
storage and display, these fruit holding mechanisms will hinder the product
from serving as a decorative ornament in the home.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of the present invention to overcome the above mentioned
drawbacks by providing an artificial tree and fruit basket combination which
is
efficient and convenient for daily use and with very close imitation of a real
tree and ease of manufacture.
The present invention discloses an artificial tree as fruit basket comprising
an artificial tree comprising a trunk, a decorative crown and at least one
naked
branch, and a base. The decorative crown of the artificial tree has at least
one
selected from the group of artificial branches, artificial twigs, artificial
leaves,
artificial fruits and artificial flowers, and has no fruit holding provision.
The at
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least one naked branch is disposed on and near the top of the trunk and below
the decorative crown of the artificial tree and functions as a fruit hanging
provision. The base is located at the bottom of the trunk of the artificial
tree
and functions as a fruit container.
The rod like structure of the trunk and the naked branch on and near the
top of the trunk makes this portion the strongest of the artificial tree. In
addition, the at least one naked branch is on the trunk and thus close to the
center of gravity of the unit, when bunch fruits are being hung onto it, there
will be no risk of losing balance of the unit. All these make here the most
suitable place to hang bunch fruits.
More importantly, the base functioning as fruit container combined with
the naked branch functioning as fruit hanging provision turn out to be the
most effective and convenient for the storage and display of a large number of
fruits. This will relieve the user of the arduous effort of putting fruits to
the
various fruit holding mechanisms and thus make the unit suitable for daily
household service.
Since all the fruits are hung from the naked branch functioning as fruit
hanging provision or put in the base functioning as fruit container, the
decorative crown of the artificial tree, more specifically the branches/twigs
in
the crown, is released from the weight load of the fruits. This way, the
structural
material of the decorative crown can be any proper material, such as plastics,
wood, and wire, normally used in the artificial flower/tree industry so that
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can achieve very close imitation of a real tree while maintaining ease of
manufacture and keeping cost low.
In addition, with the high grade of imitation thus achieved and without the
remarkably visible fruit holding mechanisms in the decorative crown of the
artificial tree, when not being used for fruit storage and display, the unit
can
serve as a very decorative ornament in the home.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In the drawings which illustrate embodiment of the invention:
Figure 1 is a perspective view of the artificial tree as fruit basket shown
with
the trunk of the artificial tree located at the center of the base and
artificial
fruits in the decorative crown of the artificial tree.
Figure 2 is a perspective view of the artificial tree as fruit basket shown
with
the trunk of the artificial tree located at the edge of the base and
artificial
flowers in the decorative crown of the artificial tree.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring to Figure 1, the artificial tree as fruit basket disclosed by the
present invention comprises an artificial tree 1 comprising a trunk 1-1, a
decorative crown 1-2 and at least one naked branch 1-3, and a base 2. The
decorative crown 1-2 of the artificial tree 1 has at least one selected from
the
group of artificial branches, artificial twigs, artificial leaves, artificial
fruits and
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artificial flowers, and has no fruit holding provision. The at least one naked
branch 1-3 is disposed on and near the top of the trunk 1-1 and below the
decorative crown 1-2 and functions as a fruit hanging provision. The base 2 is
located at the bottom of the trunk 1-1 of the artificial tree land functions
as a
fruit container.
In this embodiment of the present invention, the trunk 1-1 of the artificial
tree 1 is located at the center of the base 2 and artificial fruits are
included in
the decorative crown 1-2 of the artificial tree 1.
Referring to Figure 2, the artificial tree as fruit basket disclosed by the
present invention comprises an artificial tree 1 comprising a trunk 1-1, a
decorative crown 1-2 and at least one naked branch 1-3, and a base 2. The
decorative crown 1-2 of the artificial tree 1 has at least one selected from
the
group of artificial branches, artificial twigs, artificial leaves, artificial
fruits and
artificial flowers, and has no fruit holding provision. The at least one naked
branch 1-3 is disposed on and near the top of the trunk 1-1 and below the
decorative crown 1-2 and functions as a fruit hanging provision. The base 2 is
located at the bottom of the trunk 1-1 of the artificial tree 1 and functions
as a
fruit container.
In this embodiment of the present invention, the trunk 1-1 of the artificial
tree 1 is located at the edge of the base 2 and artificial flowers are
included in
the decorative crown 1-2 of the artificial tree 1.
It is understood that the foregoing description is illustrative of the present
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invention and should not be considered as limiting. It should thus be
appreciated that other ways of embodiment of the present invention by
variations to the invention, such as the location of the trunk of the
artificial tree
in the base, the inclusion of artificial fruits or artificial flowers, the
kind of tree,
the shape of the base, the materials and colors of the parts, including any
combination of these variations, readily apparent to those having ordinary
skills in the art, are possible and will be within the spirit and scope of the
invention as claimed.
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