The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 25, 2008
Filed:
Mar. 07, 2005
Yuichi Iohara, Koga, JP;
Yuichi Iohara, Koga, JP;
Sunarrow Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The object of the present invention is to utilize a reinforcing plate formed out of a metal or a hard resin introduced into a key unit in order to overcome the weak point that conventional rubber keypads are too soft and lack shape stability, as a design element of equipment including a key unit into which the plate is incorporated. For example, a part of metal reinforcing plateis positively exposed to a position which can be seen from the outside of key unit, and various decorations are applied to the exposed partso as to allow it to function as a decorated component. As a location where the reinforcing plate is exposed, there can be cited a part between each key on the key face or an annular part which encircles a plurality of key clusters. A mode may be considered in which the part of the exposed reinforcing platesurrounds each individual key toplike a key frame, so as to substitute a key frame which has been conventionally realized by the equipment casing. The shape of the exposed part of the reinforcing plateis arbitrary. For example, letters, symbols, or the like may be formed.