Cellular phone docking station

• US 7,697,963 B1
• Filed: 05/02/2007
• Issued: 04/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: David Pomery
• Original Assignee: David Pomery
• Inventors: Pomery, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Afshar; Kamran
• Application Number:
  US11/743,355
• Time in Patent Office: 1,077 Days
• Field of Search: 455/425, 4554261-4262, 455/462, 455 901- 903, 4555501-5531, 455/569.1, 455571-5751, 455/334, 455/347
• US Class Current: 455/572
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00034 Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0044 specially adapted for holding portable devices containing batteries H02J7/0045 takes precedence

Abstract

This patent discloses a docking station for a cellular phone. The docking station may include a housing, charger pins, keys, a red LED, a green LED, an upload button, a docking station memory, a signal emitter and a set of templates. The housing may have a slot, a cradle, an angled front face supporting the keys and LEDs, and a ledge supporting the upload button. A template may fit into the slot to adjust the cradle size to receive various cellular phones. The docking station may have electronics to receive and store phone contact information from a first cellular phone and upload that stored phone contact information into a second cellular phone. The signal emitter may send a disable signal to the first cellular phone.

Claims

1. A docking station for a cellular phone, the docking station comprising:

a housing having a slot, a housing top, a front face, a ledge, a cradle having cradle mouth and a cradle bottom, where the ledge extends away from the front face and generally is parallel to the housing top, where the front face is positioned between the housing top and the ledge at a front face angle relative to the ledge, where the front face angle is between zero and ninety degrees;

charger pins exposed in the cradle bottom;

keys positioned at a top of the front face;

a red LED positioned underneath the keys on a lower left side of the front face;

a green LED positioned underneath the keys on a lower right side of the front face;

an upload button positioned on the ledge beneath the green LED;

a docking station memory configured to be in communication with the charger pins;

a signal emitter configured to transmit a disable signal to a lost cellular phone; and

a set of templates configured to be inserted into and removed from the slot.

2. The docking station of claim 1, where the cradle mouth has a perimeter that is at least two times a perimeter of a cellular phone to be charged.

3. The docking station of claim 2, where the front face angle approximately is sixty to seventy-five degrees.

4. The docking station of claim 3, where the slot is a narrow opening in the housing that extends into and around the cradle mouth such that the slot is configured to provide support around the perimeter of a template and configured to position the template relative to the charger pins when the template is fully inserted in the slot.

5. The docking station of claim 1, where the keys are numbered 0 through 9 and arranged in two rows, with keys one through five in a first row and keys six through zero in a second row positioned below the first row.

6. The docking station of claim 5, where the keys are switches that only operate off of mechanical components.

7. The docking station of claim 1, where the red LED is configured to light if a cellular phone is not fully charge and the green LED 236 is configured to light if a cellular phone is fully charge and current phone contact information stored in the cellular phone have been downloaded into the docking station memory.

8. The docking station of claim 1, where the upload button is configured to assist in passing phone contact information from the memory of docking station into a memory of a cellular phone.

9. The docking station of claim 8, where the upload button is inoperable if a combination has not been entered into the docking station through the keys.

10. The docking station of claim 1, where each template includes a perimeter, an opening pattern, a handle, and a template identifier.

11. The docking station of claim 10, where the perimeter has a rectangular shape that extends outward to form the handle.

12. The docking station of claim 11, where each opening pattern is positioned relative to the perimeter as a function of a particular cellular phone and is sized as a function of that particular cellular phone.

13. The docking station of claim 11, where a positioning and size of an opening pattern for a first template is different than at least one of a positioning and size of an opening pattern for a second template.

14. The docking station of claim 11, where each template includes an opening pattern having a positioning and a size, and each positioning and size of each opening pattern is different than the positioning and size of each opening pattern in the templates remaining in the set of templates.

15. The docking station of claim 1, further comprising:

a power cord and a microprocessor, where the microprocessor contains components to perform logical steps and is configured to be in communication with the charger pins, the docking station memory, and the signal emitter, where the docking station memory includes permanent and temporary storage, and where the housing approximately measure two inches high, three inches long, and three inches wide.

16. A method to charge and automatically backup data in a first cellular phone, the method comprising:

presenting a docking station having a housing having a slot, a housing top, a front face, a ledge, a cradle having cradle mouth and a cradle bottom, where the ledge extends away from the front face and generally is parallel to the housing top, where the front face is positioned between the housing top and the ledge at a front face angle relative to the ledge, where the front face angle is between zero and ninety degrees, where the docking station further includes charger pins exposed in the cradle bottom, keys positioned at a top of the front face, a red LED positioned underneath the keys on a lower left side of the front face, a green LED positioned underneath the keys on a lower right side of the front face, an upload button positioned on the ledge beneath the green LED, a docking station memory configured to be in communication with the charger pins, a signal emitter configured to transmit a disable signal to a lost cellular phone, and a set of templates configured to be inserted into and removed from the slot;

receiving a first template in the slot; and

receiving a first cellular phone in the cradle through the template and automatically receiving current phone contact information from the first cellular phone in the docking station memory, where the current phone contact information from the first cellular phone overwrites all the information stored in the docking station memory.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

removing the first cellular phone from the cradle;

receiving a second cellular phone in the cradle through the template;

receiving a signal from the upload button; and

uploading the current phone contact information from the docking station memory into a memory of the second cellular phone.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving a combination in the docking station through the keys prior to uploading the current phone contact information from the docking station memory into a memory of the second cellular phone; and

sending a signal from the signal emitter to the first cellular phone to disable the first cellular phone.