BACKGROUND

[0001] The present invention relates to a holder for temporarily holding smoking articles, such as cigars, cigarettes, and pipes.

[0002] Individuals who use any one of a variety of smoking articles find that they must always hold the smoking article in one hand and, hence, only have one hand free for their activities. If two hands are required for an activity, they must place the smoking article in an ashtray or on the ground or in some other inconvenient location. Probably the only remaining option is to ask someone else to hold the smoking article, for instance a cigar.

[0003] One of the problems smokers encounter is that they often need to put down the smoking article only temporarily. Such situations are, for example, while fishing, boating or playing golf. A golfer may enjoy a cigar while playing golf but may also need to temporarily put the cigar down while teeing off, driving or putting. Placing the cigar on the ground is not desirable because of the chemicals used on the golf course grass and because it may result in the golfer forgetting to pick up the cigar after completing the shot. Use of an ashtray is not convenient on a golf course. Ashtrays are cumbersome and tend to be unstable devices. Moreover, it is difficult to attach an ashtray to a golf cart or to a golf bag in any usable manner. As such, it would be preferable to provide some form of cigar holder that could be attached to a golf cart or a golf bag for convenient use by a golfer.

[0004] Other examples can be readily found in which a smoking article holding device would be beneficial. For example, it might be beneficial to provide such a holding device in a vehicle or in a home to temporarily hold a cigar in a selected orientation. Additionally, would be beneficial to provide a holder for temporarily holding smoking articles that can be oriented h a variety of positions to facilitate a selected orientation by the smoker. For example, in using such a device with a golf cart, it would be desirable to maintain a selected orientation of the cigar either to maintain the combustion of the cigar or to minimize the combustion of the cigar material or that would position the cigar in such a way that the ashes would not fall in some inconvenient location. Similarly, the same examples might apply with regard to pipes or cigarettes.

[0005] The prior art has generally addressed the problem of temporarily holding smoking articles and has proposed numerous solutions thereto. The prior art includes U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,706,832; 5,868,143; 5,900,735 and 6,050,228. U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,228 includes an extensive discussion of additional prior art. For the most part, the prior art describe holders for smoking articles that are attached to golf carts or the like using pins, springs or mechanical clamps that limit the surfaces to which the holder may be attached.

[0006] As such, it would be desirable to provide a holder for temporarily holding smoking articles that can be attached to a wide variety of surfaces in a wide variety of selected orientations.

[0007] An object of the present invention is to provide a holder for temporarily holding smoking articles that can be attached to a variety of surfaces and attached in a variety of orientations to hold the smoking articles in the desired attitude.

[0008] Another object of the present invention is to a holder for temporarily holding smoking articles which can accommodate smoking articles of differing sizes, such us cigars, pipe, and cigarettes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0009] The present invention is directed to a holder for temporarily holding smoking articles in which the holder is made up of a grasping assembly and an attachment assembly.

[0010] The grasping assembly functions to temporarily grasp the smoking article. The grasping assembly includes two spaced-apart arms having opposed faces, wherein at least one of the arms has at least a portion of the face that is spring biased toward the face of the other arm. The spring biased opposing faces are adapted to temporarily grasp the smoking article there between. Optionally, one or both of the arms may have concave face portions to enhance the ability of the arms to engage smoking articles of differing sizes.

[0011] The attachment assembly functions to attach the holder to a variety of surfaces in a variety of selected orientations. The attachment assembly is based on a flexible strap having one end permanently secured to the holder. The loose end of the flexible strap is fitted with a securing means, such as Velcro, to releasable secure the loose end of said strap to the grasping assembly. The flexible strap is used to encircle a portion of a golf cart or golf bag, and the loose end of the flexible strap is secured to the grasping assembly using the securing means such as Velcro. When the flexible strap is secured to the grasping assembly, the holder is removably secured to the golf cart or golf bag in a selected orientation. The inner surface of the flexible strap may be lined with a friction enhancing material, such a foam rubber, to help maintain the holder in the selected orientation.