US-12622495-B1 - Quick access wallet

US12622495B1US 12622495 B1US12622495 B1US 12622495B1US-12622495-B1

Abstract

The present invention is directed toward an improved quick access wallet that is carried in one's pocket, bag, or purse and is used for carrying standard wallet sized cards. The wallet comprises a rectangular housing base and housing cover that are attached together to form a housing with a card chamber inside and a card opening at a front portion. The card chamber has a first guide wall and a second guide wall which is divided into three portions; a front portion, a recessed portion and a transition portion joining the front portion and recessed portion together. A spring element projects through the first guide wall and urges cards inserted into the card chamber into the recessed portion of the second guide wall, with cards being locked behind the transition portion so they cannot fall out. Another card holding means is provided on the exterior surface of the housing base.

Inventors

Michael Kitchen

Assignees

Michael Kitchen

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20250318

Claims (16)

1 . A quick access wallet comprising: a housing; the housing comprising: a housing base having a generally rectangular planar shape including a pair of longitudinal sides and a pair of transverse ends; the housing base having a bottom portion having an interior surface and an exterior surface, a rear portion, and a front portion; a housing cover having a generally rectangular planar shape and attached to the housing base, the housing cover covering the interior surface of the housing base; the front portion of the housing base having a card opening formed therein configured to allow cards to pass through the card opening and into and out of a card chamber configured to receive at least one card, the interior surface of the bottom portion of the housing base forming a surface of the card chamber; the card chamber having a first guide wall, a second guide wall, and a rear wall all upstanding from the interior surface of the housing base, the rear wall being disposed between the first guide wall and the second guide wall proximate to the rear portion of the housing base; the second guide wall having at least three portions, the three portions including a front portion of the second guide wall paralleling the first guide wall at a first predetermined distance and being proximate to the card opening, a recessed portion spaced at least a second predetermined distance from the first guide wall, and a transition portion joining the front portion of the second guide wall to the recessed portion, the second predetermined distance being greater than the first predetermined distance; a spring element projecting from the first guide wall and into the card chamber for urging cards received within the card chamber towards the second guide wall to rotate and lock cards that are fully inserted into the card chamber against the recessed portion of the second guide wall, the transition portion of the second guide wall forming a physical barrier locking the cards in the card chamber against the recessed portion.
2 . The quick access wallet of claim 1 , wherein the wallet further comprises a card a removal means for urging cards received within the card chamber toward and out from the card opening.
3 . The quick access wallet of claim 2 wherein the card removal means includes at least one opening formed in the housing cover for access to a card underlying the housing cover inside the card chamber.
4 . The quick access wallet of claim 2 wherein the card removal means comprises a slit in the housing cover, the slit being configured to slidably retain a button, the button having longitudinally sliding movement on a top surface of the housing cover, the button further comprising an ejecting member protruding downwards from its underside and being disposed under the housing cover and in the card chamber behind a plurality of cards, wherein the plurality of cards are able to be ejected from the card chamber by sliding the button forwards.
5 . The quick access wallet of claim 1 wherein the transition portion of the second guide wall is angled approximately 45 degrees with respect to the interior surface of the bottom portion of the housing base.
6 . The quick access wallet of claim 1 wherein the spring element further comprises a recess in the first guide wall, the recess comprising a sliding member and a spring, the recess being configured to slidably retain the sliding member, the sliding member partially projecting into the card chamber and having slidable movement into and out of the recess, the spring being retained between a back portion of the recess and a boss on the sliding member, the sliding member having a constant force against the edges of cards stored in the card chamber.
7 . The quick access wallet of claim 1 wherein the exterior surface of the housing base comprises a card holding means.
8 . The quick access wallet according to claim 1 wherein the housing cover is made from a substantially rigid RFID protective material.
9 . A quick access wallet comprising: a housing; the housing comprising: a housing base having a generally rectangular planar shape including a pair of longitudinal sides and a pair of transverse ends; the housing base having a bottom portion having an interior surface and an exterior surface, a rear portion, and a front portion; a housing cover having a generally rectangular planar shape and attached to the housing base, the housing cover covering the interior surface of the housing base; the front portion of the housing base having a card opening formed therein configured to allow cards to pass through the card opening and into and out of a card chamber configured to receive at least one card, the interior surface of the bottom portion of the housing base forming a surface of the card chamber; the card chamber having a first guide wall, a second guide wall, and a rear wall all upstanding from the interior surface of the housing base, the rear wall disposed between the first guide wall and the second guide wall proximate to the rear portion of the housing base; the second guide wall having at least three portions, the three portions including a front portion of the second guide wall paralleling the first guide wall at a first predetermined distance and being proximate to the card opening, a recessed portion spaced at least a second predetermined distance from the first guide wall, and a transition portion joining the front portion of the second guide wall to the recessed portion, the second predetermined distance being greater than the first predetermined distance, the difference between the first predetermined distance and the second predetermined distance being 0.025″ to 0.1875″, the transition portion of the second guide wall being angled approximately 45 degrees with respect to the interior surface of the bottom portion of the housing base; a spring element projecting from the first guide wall and into the card chamber for urging cards received within the card chamber towards the second guide wall to rotate and lock cards that are fully inserted into the card chamber against the recessed portion of the second guide wall, the transition portion of the second guide wall forming a physical barrier locking the cards in the card chamber against the recessed portion.
10 . The quick access wallet of claim 9 , wherein the wallet further comprises a card a removal means for urging cards received within the card chamber toward and out from the card opening.
11 . The quick access wallet of claim 10 wherein the card removal means includes at least one opening formed in the housing cover for access to a card underlying the housing cover inside the card chamber.
12 . The quick access wallet of claim 10 wherein the card removal means comprises a slit in the housing cover, the slit being configured to slidably retain a button, the button having longitudinally sliding movement on a top surface of the housing cover, the button further comprising an ejecting member protruding downwards from its underside and being disposed under the housing cover and in the card chamber behind a plurality of cards, wherein the plurality of cards are able to be ejected from the card chamber by sliding the button forwards.
13 . The quick access wallet of claim 9 wherein the transition portion of the second guide wall is angled approximately 45 degrees with respect to the interior surface of the bottom portion of the housing base.
14 . The quick access wallet of claim 9 wherein the spring element further comprises a recess in the first guide wall, the recess comprising a sliding member and a spring, the recess being configured to slidably retain the sliding member, the sliding member partially projecting into the card chamber and having slidable movement into and out of the recess, the spring being retained between a back portion of the recess and a boss on the sliding member, the sliding member having a constant force against the edges of cards stored in the card chamber.
15 . The quick access wallet of claim 9 wherein the exterior surface of the housing base comprises a card holding means.
16 . The quick access wallet according to claim 9 wherein the housing cover is made from a substantially rigid RFID protective material.

Description

BACKGROUND Field of the Invention This invention relates to card cases and wallets, and more specifically to wallet-sized electromagnetic shielding or RFID blocking card cases for holding and protecting personal articles such as credit cards, debit cards, chip and pin cards, contactless smartcards, licenses, identification cards, and the like. Prior Art Conventional bi-fold and tri-fold wallets and card carriers are primarily designed to hold paper currency, a plurality of cards including credit and bank cards, and other important cards such as a driver's license or IDs, which are not easily replaced if lost. These traditional wallets are typically shaped and sized to be able to fit inside one's pocket for easy transport, and are typically made from a soft leather or fabric material with card pockets on the insides. While convenient for carrying cards and paper currency, these wallets have a number of functional, security, and durability issues including: a) card pockets are very difficult to get cards out of, and usually force a user to first open the wallet and then dig underneath the edge of a card with their finger in order to get a grip on it and pull it out, making it slow and inconvenient to access a card;b) card pockets rely on the material of the wallet itself to adequately grip and secure a card or stack of cards, and can make it harder to remove a card if that slot is tight;c) card pockets pose the risk of cards accidentally sliding out as the card pocket stretches and loosens over time with use;d) lack of crush resistance if carried in one's back pocket or a bag with other items, which could cause cards inside the wallet to bend or crack over time, affecting their usability;e) lack of shielding against unauthorized RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) scanning of contactless or RFID enabled credit, bank, or work entry cards, also known in the industry as “skimming” or RFID theft;f) lack of ergonomics, often requiring two handed operation for finding, accessing, and removing a card from inside the wallet after opening it up. There are some who have invented more modern quick access wallets and card cases which allow easier card access and attempt to secure cards from falling out. U.S. Pat. No. 6,089,289 issued to Florjancic teaches a plastic holder for two credit cards made of one piece of plastic. The holder takes the form of an injection molded jacket with an intermediate rib at its midpoint which divides the jacket up into two separate card slots. There are cutouts on each side to allow a user to quickly push cards out with their thumb. Inside the card holder is either a flexible follower or a rib that frictionally engages the faces of cards to grip them and prevent them from falling out. The embodiment with the rib as the card gripping method is only able to work with one card, as it bends and deforms that card along its middle access in order to secure it inside the holder. While Florjancic does teach a quick access card holder that is easy to manufacture, the disadvantage of this device is that there is no physical barrier near the card openings to prevent cards from falling out if the device is shaken or dropped—it relies solely on the followers or ribs frictionally engaging the cards. Moreover, if more than one card was stored in each card slot, the stack of cards in each slot would have more weight and a card from that stack would be more likely to slide out from the followers that push down on the topmost card in the stack, leading to a higher chance of cards falling out. U.S. Pat. No. 6,412,627 issued to Tiscione teaches a rigid card case with a card opening at one end where cards are inserted into a series of parallel slots and a user can eject any card they want by sliding a spring loaded button towards the card opening which corresponds to that card. Tiscione states that cards are kept from falling out of the case by virtue of the sides of cards frictionally engaging a resilient material along the side walls inside the card case, such as resilient pads. While this card case does allow cards to be ejected quickly, there is no physical barrier near the card opening preventing the stack of cards from accidentally sliding out if the internal resilient material or pad wears out, becomes detached from the side wall, or is simply not enough to grip certain cards with slight dimensional variances. U.S. Pat. No. 9,877,556 issued to Holder teaches a multi-slot quick access wallet made of multiple sheets of thin flexible material. The wallet has an aperture on each side that allows a user to push their cards out quickly. Unfortunately this flexible material (likely leather of fabric) relies on the material itself and the tightness of each card pocket to grip cards, which is unreliable because over time as the wallets' material stretches with use, the card slots can become looser and cards can fall out from their card openings. U.S. Pat. No. 11,547,188 issued to Myers teaches a rigid card wall