Pop up greeting cards

• US 9,056,517 B2
• Filed: 05/14/2012
• Issued: 06/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Greetings Corporation
• Original Assignee: American Greetings Corporation
• Inventors: Qiao, Tiger, Talbot, Johnathan, Muri, Theresa, Mayer, David, Guo, Jerry, Deckerd, Annie, Nelson, Gary
• Primary Examiner(s): JUNGE, KRISTINA N S
• Application Number:
  US13/470,499
• Publication Number:
  US 20130232828A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,128 Days
• Field of Search: 401/240.3, 401/240.6, 401/240.8
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B42D 15/022 combined with permanently fastened sound-producing or light-emitting means or carrying sound records
• CPC Class Codes: B42D 15/027 combined with permanently fastened other articles, e.g. photographs
• CPC Class Codes: B42D 15/045 Multi-part cards or sheets, i.e. combined with detachably mounted articles
• CPC Class Codes: B42D 25/285 Gift cards

Abstract

An interactive electronic greeting card with pop up feature includes a three-sided pocket or cavity which houses various electronic and mechanical components and a pop up element. In a first position, the pop up element is substantially contained within the greeting card pocket or cavity. When the push button is depressed, the pop up element is ejected or “pops up” out of the greeting card pocket or cavity, revealing a greeting or other printed indicia. The push button also initiates playback of a pre-loaded digital audio file, which may be a spoken message, a sound, a song, music or other such audio recording. Manually pushing the pop up element back into the cavity ends playback of the audio.

Claims

1. A pop-up greeting card comprising:

a greeting card body having a front surface, a back surface parallel to and spaced apart from the front surface, and a right side wall, left side wall and bottom wall which each extend between the front surface and back surface creating a pocket therebetween;

a sound module having at least one digital audio file saved thereon;

a pop-up panel operative to move between a first position wherein it is substantially contained within the pocket and a second position wherein it is substantially outside of the pocket;

a spring mechanism attached to the pop-up panel, the spring mechanism comprising at least one spring;

a press-button having a lip attached thereto;

a lever which is operative to move from a first position wherein it interrupts a circuit providing power to the sound module and a second position wherein it completes the circuit;

wherein when the pop-up panel is in the first position, the lip attached to the press-button is engaged with an opening on the pop-up panel thereby retaining the pop-up panel within the pocket and pressing the press-button releases the lip from within the opening on the pop-up panel causing the pop-up panel to move into the second position wherein it is substantially outside of the pocket; and

wherein when the pop-up panel is in the first position it forces the lever into the first position and wherein when the pop-up panel is in the second position it releases the lever causing said lever to move to the second position, thereby initiating playback of the at least one digital audio file; and

wherein the spring mechanism does not allow the pop-up panel to be full removed from the greeting card.

2. The pop-up greeting card of claim 1, wherein the press-button is accessed through the front surface of the greeting card.

3. The pop-up greeting card of claim 1 further comprising a protective frame which is contained within the pocket.

4. The pop-up greeting card of claim 1, wherein manually pushing the pop-up panel into the pocket ends playback of the at least one digital audio file.

5. The pop-up greeting card of claim 1, wherein the pop-up panel contains a message printed thereon.

6. The pop-up greeting card of claim 1, wherein a gift card is removably attached to the pop-up panel.

7. A pop-up greeting card comprising:

a main pocket having a front side, a back side parallel to and spaced apart from the front side, and a right side, back side and bottom panel which extend between the front and back sides;

a coil spring loaded, three-sided pop-up panel which is contained within the main pocket;

a press-button having a lip contained thereon which engages with an opening in the pop-up panel to retain the pop-up panel inside the main pocket;

a sound module contained and concealed within the main pocket operative to store and playback at least one audio file contained therein;

wherein pressing the press-button disengages the lip from the opening in the pop-up panel causing the pop-up panel to spring outside of the main pocket and causes the sound module to play the at least one audio file.

8. The pop-up greeting card of claim 7, wherein the pop-up panel has a gift card attached thereto.

9. The pop-up greeting card of claim 7, wherein the pop-up panel contains a pocket therein.

10. The pop-up greeting card of claim 9, wherein the pocket in the pop-up panel contains a gift card therein.

11. The pop-up greeting card of claim 7, wherein the pop-up panel contains a greeting printed thereon.

12. The pop-up greeting card of claim 11, wherein the switch is accessed through the front side of the main pocket.

13. The pop-up greeting card of claim 7 wherein manually pushing the pop-up panel back into the main pocket causes playback of the at least one audio file to end.