Mattress and box spring with hidden gun compartment

United States Patent 11,234,534

Household & FurnitureGranted 202216 claims6 figuresCPC A47C21/00
Drawing figure from US Patent 11,234,534, Mattress and box spring with hidden gun compartment
Drawing figure from US 11,234,534
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What this patent covers

A firearm compartment concealed in a bed. A gun holder sits inside the box spring, and the mattress above has an opening through it matching the holder's opening, so someone lying in bed can reach down and into the compartment.

US 11,234,534 is a utility patent titled “Mattress and box spring with hidden gun compartment”, invented by Leon Cutler.

The application was filed on May 10, 2020 and granted on February 1, 2022, 1 year, 8 months later. The patent issued with 16 claims, 3 of them independent. The specification refers to 6 drawing figures. The U.S. Patent Office classifies it under CPC A47C21/00 — attachments for beds, e.g. sheet holders or bed-cover holders (bed tables supported on the bedstead a47b23/02); ventilating, cooling or heating means in connection with bedsteads or mattresses.

It is one of the patents our firm has obtained in the Household & Furniture area.

Key dates and patent term

Application filedMay 10, 2020
Patent grantedFebruary 1, 20221 year, 8 months in prosecution at the U.S. Patent Office
Utility term expires (nominal)May 10, 204020 years from the earliest U.S. non-provisional filing date.

The expiration date is calculated from the grant and filing dates on the face of the patent. The actual date may vary based on patent-term adjustment (patent office delay), terminal disclaimer (agreeing to a shorter term), or failing to pay a maintenance fee (due before years 4, 8, and 12). This website is for information purposes only and is not legal advice.

What the classification means

Patent offices file every granted patent under the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) scheme. These are the technology areas US 11,234,534 was placed in — a good shortcut to what the invention is considered to be, and to the prior art an examiner would have searched.

  • A47C21/00 Primary classification
    Attachments for beds, e.g. sheet holders or bed-cover holders (bed tables supported on the bedstead A47B23/02); Ventilating, cooling or heating means in connection with bedsteads or mattresses
  • A47C
    Chairs; sofas; beds
  • A47B
    Tables; desks; office furniture; cabinets; drawers; general details of furniture (furniture jointing F16B)

Bibliographic details

Patent numberUS 11,234,534
TitleMattress and box spring with hidden gun compartment
InventorsLeon Cutler
AssigneeIndividual
Filing dateMay 10, 2020
Grant dateFebruary 1, 2022
CategoryHousehold & Furniture

Full text as published by the U.S. Patent Office

The sections below reproduce the official text of US 11,234,534 for reference. Open a section to read it.

Abstract

A gun holder is situated within a box spring beneath a mattress. The mattress itself has an opening therein matching the size of the opening into the gun holder and extending through the mattress. One can then lie on one's bed and near one's arm, reach downward into the box spring or other mattress support, and grab the gun without having to move the majority of one's body from the position in which one was sleeping on the bed.

Claims (16)
  1. 1. A combination mattress and mattress support adapted to hold a gun therein, the combination comprising:said mattress being unitary and having top, bottom, left, right, front, and back sides;said mattress support having top, bottom, left, right, front, and back sides situated beneath said mattress;a mattress portal in said mattress extending from said top side to said bottom side of said mattress, said mattress portal having a left, right, front, and back side;a support portal in said mattress support, said support portal having a top side lined up with, and having equal dimensions to, said mattress portal, wherein said support portal has a top section and a lower section, said top section terminating at said top side of said support portal, said top section being wider than said lower section;wherein said top section and said lower section join at a right angle to one another, and wherein a portion of said mattress support forms a base of said support portal, such that said support portal does not extend through an entire height of said mattress support.
  2. 2. The combination mattress and mattress support of claim 1 , wherein said mattress portal is of equal width from said top side to said bottom side of said mattress.
  3. 3. The combination mattress and mattress support of claim 2 , where both said mattress portal and said support portal have left, right, front, and back sides.
  4. 4. The combination mattress and mattress support of claim 1 , wherein a bullet trap, disposed in said mattress support surrounding said support portal, has a bottom side and a top side, said top side of said bullet trap being narrower than said bottom side of said bullet trap.
  5. 5. The combination mattress and mattress support of claim 1 , wherein a trigger guard of the gun is adapted to rest against a bottom surface of said top section of said support portal.
  6. 6. The combination mattress and mattress support of claim 1 , further comprising a sheet covering at least said top side of said mattress with a flap in said sheet opening into said mattress portal.
  7. 7. A gun holder situated within a mattress support beneath a unitary mattress, the mattress support having a substantially equal width and length as the unitary mattress, the unitary mattress having a mattress portal extending there-through, the mattress portal having front, back, right, and left sides, the gun holder comprising;a support portal extending through part of the depth of the mattress support, the support portal having a wider upper portion and a narrower lower portion,wherein said wider upper portion has front, back, right, and left sides, said front, back, right, and left sides of said wider upper portion being substantially aligned with the respective front, back, right, and left sides of the mattress portal, andwherein said narrower lower portion has front, back, right, and left sides, wherein exactly three of said front, back, right, and left sides of said narrower lower portion are continuous to corresponding ones of said front, back, right, and left sides of said wider upper portion.
  8. 8. The gun holder of claim 7 , wherein said narrower lower portion is less than half as wide as said wider upper portion in order to support a gun barrel in said narrower lower portion and a gun trigger and magazine in said wider upper portion.
  9. 9. The gun holder of claim 8 , wherein said unitary mattress is covered by a sheet with a flap opening into a top side of said unitary mattress, said flap situated within a middle third of a length of a mattress adapted to be within reach of a person sleeping vertically on said mattress.
  10. 10. The gun holder of claim 9 , wherein said flap opens on exactly three sides of said gun holder.
  11. 11. A combination mattress and mattress support adapted to hold a gun therein, the combination comprising:said mattress being unitary and having top, bottom, left, right, front, and back sides;said mattress support having top, bottom, left, right, front, and back sides situated beneath said mattress;a mattress portal in said mattress extending from said top side to said bottom side of said mattress, said mattress portal having a left, right, front, and back side;a support portal in said mattress support, said support portal having a top side lined up with, and having equal dimensions to, said mattress portal, wherein said support portal has a top section and a lower section, said top section terminating at said top side of said support portal, said top section being wider than said lower section;a bullet trap, disposed in said mattress support surrounding said support portal and adapted to stop a bullet from penetrating through said bullet trap when fired from a handgun held in said support portal, said bullet trap having a bottom side and a top side, said top side being narrower than said bottom side; andwherein a trigger guard of the gun is adapted to rest against a bottom surface of said top section of said support portal.
  12. 12. The combination mattress and mattress support of claim 11 , wherein said mattress portal is of equal width from said top side to said bottom side of said mattress.
  13. 13. The combination mattress and mattress support of claim 12 , where both said mattress portal and said support portal have left, right, front, and back sides.
  14. 14. The combination mattress and mattress support of claim 11 , further comprising a sheet covering at least said top side of said mattress with a flap in said sheet opening into said mattress portal.
  15. 15. The combination mattress and mattress support of claim 11 , wherein said top section and said lower section join at a right angle to one another.
  16. 16. The combination mattress and mattress support of claim 11 , wherein a portion of said mattress support forms a base of said support portal, such that said support portal does not extend through an entire height of said mattress support.
Field of the Disclosed Technology

The disclosed technology relates generally to mattresses and, more specifically, to those with hidden compartments.

Background of the Disclosed Technology

Sometimes you just can't grab your gun fast enough. Imagine a scenario where you're lying in bed and you wake to a person rummaging through your house looking for your valuables. Worse, imagine if you wake to an intruder in your room. You don't have a chance to jump out of bed, open your safe, or what have you. You may not even have a chance to move. In the prior art, some have placed drawers under beds for guns, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,292,960 to Bowling or U.S. Pat. No. 2,895,145 to Soifer. Still, one would have to reach out of one's bed and down to the side, then open up the side and grab the gun within. You just can't do that with a stranger already in your room, with the own gun pointed at your head.

What is required is a way to sleep safely in your bed, knowing that there is a gun accessible when you need it.

Summary of the Disclosed Technology

A combination mattress and box spring makes up aspects of the disclosed technology. The mattress has a top, bottom, left, right, front, and back sides. The top side is the side one sleeps on, whereas the bottom side is the side facing the ground beneath (“gravitational bottom”). For purposes of this disclosure and claims, “top” and “bottom” are used throughout in a manner to be consistent, with the left, right, front, and back sides being sides between the planar, or substantially planar top and bottom sides. A mattress support further has top, bottom, left, right, front, and back sides, and is situated beneath the mattress and supports the weight of the mattress. A portal in the mattress extends from the top side to the bottom side of the mattress and has left, right, front, and back sides. These sides, for purposes of the disclosure, face in the same direction consistently. Thus, for example, a “left side” of a portal is to the same left of the portal in this cardinal direction as the left side of the mattress is on its relative left side, e.g., in the same cardinal direction.

A portal in the mattress support has a top side lined up with, and has, equal dimensions to the portal in the mattress. The portal in the mattress support has a top section terminating at the top side of the portal of the mattress support, which is wider than a lower section. In embodiments, the portal in the mattress is of equal width from the top side to the bottom side of the mattress. Both portals have left, right, front, and back sides in embodiments, but in some of these embodiments, the mattress support has a wider bottom side than a top side. This bottom side can open into a bullet trap which is a device constructed in a manner sufficient to retain a bullet fired from a handgun situated in the portal of the mattress support.

The bottom side can be adapted to, or holds, a slide of a gun and is smaller in width than a magazine of the same gun. As such, the magazine with trigger remains in the top side of the portal of the mattress support. In this manner, a trigger guard of the gun rests against a top edge of the bottom side of the portal of the mattress support. The mattress support can also be a box-spring.

A sheet covering at least the top side of the mattress, with a flap in the sheet, opens into the portal of the mattress, in embodiments of the disclosed technology.

Stated in another way, a gun holder situated within a mattress support beneath a mattress, such that the mattress support has a substantially equal width and length as the mattress and a portal, extends through the mattress and substantially aligns with the portal of the mattress support on at least four sides of each of the portal of the mattress and the portal of the mattress support, in embodiments of the disclosed technology. A bullet trap opening into a bottom side of the gun holder and adapted to stop a bullet from penetrating there-through when fired from a handgun held in the gun holder is also used in embodiments of the disclosed technology.

The gun holder has a wider upper portion and narrower lower portion, in some embodiments. A handgun, where a magazine fits only in the wider upper portion to the exclusion of the narrower lower portion, is used in embodiments of the disclosed technology.

For purposes of this disclosure, the term “substantially” is defined as “at least 95% of” the term which it modifies. Any device or aspect of the technology can “comprise” or “consist of” the item it modifies, whether explicitly written as such or otherwise. When the term “or” is used, it creates a group which has within either term being connected by the conjunction as well as both terms being connected by the conjunction.

Brief Description of the Drawings

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a person lying in bed while an intruder comes in, in embodiments of the disclosed technology.

FIG. 2 shows the scene of FIG. 1 after the person lying in bed grabs his/her own gun, in an embodiment of the disclosed technology.

FIG. 3 shows a mattress with flap in the sheet that can be opened, revealing a hidden gun compartment, in an embodiment of the disclosed technology.

FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of a gun compartment used in embodiments of the disclosed technology.

FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of a second gun compartment used in embodiments of the disclosed technology.

FIG. 6 shows a side elevation view of a mattress and box spring with gun compartment, used in embodiments of the disclosed technology.

Detailed Description of Embodiments of the Disclosed Technology

A gun holder is situated within a box spring beneath a mattress. The mattress itself has an opening therein matching the size of the opening into the gun holder and extending through the mattress. One can then lie on one's bed and near one's arm, reach downward into the box spring or other mattress support, and grab the gun without having to move the majority of one's body from the position in which one was sleeping on the bed.

Embodiments of the disclosed technology will become clearer in view of the following description of the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a person lying in bed, while an intruder comes in, in an embodiment of the disclosed technology. A person 1 is lying in his bed, sleeping or otherwise, when in walks person 2 ready to do harm to person 1 . Person 1 lies on a top side of a mattress 10 which is, in turn, situated on a box spring 12 . The mattress 10 can have a bullet-proof layer at the top or bottom, so that it can be used as a shield, if need be. Person 1 has the ability to defend himself beneath his sheet, because, unknown to person 2 , there is a portal 20 extending through the mattress 10 into a portal 21 in the box spring, where a gun 3 is present within the portal 21 of the box spring. Person 2 or someone else previously placed the gun there and hid it from view. A trapezoidal bullet trap chamber 22 is shown, surrounding portal 21 in a mattress support 12 .

FIG. 2 shows the scene of FIG. 1 after the person lying in bed has grabbed his/her own gun 3 , in an embodiment of the disclosed technology. Continuing our scenario from FIG. 1 , person 1 reaches for the gun held in the portal 21 in the box spring, pulls it out, and now can shoot person 2 , or at least point the weapon at the person. The gun can be pulled out from the portal 21 under a sheet (not shown).

FIG. 3 shows a mattress with openable flap in the sheet revealing a hidden gun compartment, in an embodiment of the disclosed technology. Here, the flap 15 closes on to the top side 16 of a portal 20 of the mattress 10 . This top side of the portal is adjacent to/opens to the top side of the mattress 10 , and the flap 15 can be part of the mattress or a bed sheet covering the mattress. The flap 15 can be attached on one side, while detached or openable on three sides, such as is shown in FIG. 3 . Note also that a cylindrical chamber 23 is shown, surrounding portal 21 in mattress support 12 disposed beneath the mattress, where the gun is held in this embodiment. The gun chamber 23 has equally-sized top and bottom sides and straight walls extending from the top to the bottom. In other embodiments, such as shown in FIG. 2 , a top portion of the portal 21 in the mattress support 12 can be larger than a bottom portion of portal 21 . The top and bottom portions can be defined based on their relative sizes, with the top portion being larger. Portal 20 in the mattress lines up with portal 21 in the mattress support 12 . The mattress support can be a box spring.

FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of a gun compartment used in embodiments of the disclosed technology. A portion shown represents the portal 20 within the mattress 10 , and another portion represents portal 21 within the mattress support. The portal 21 within the mattress support forms a gun compartment or gun holder. The portal 21 has a top portion which is wider (rectangular region, and) which opens to the exact size of the portal 20 of the mattress on the left, right, front, and back sides (relative to the sides of the bed, as the terminology is used throughout this disclosure). A bottom portion of the portal 21 is narrower. The bottom portion holds a slide or barrel 43 of the gun 3 , whereas the lowest side of the top portion abuts the trigger guard 42 of the gun, while the magazine 41 of the gun is too wide/angled/long to fit within the bottom portion of portal 21 . In this manner, the barrel is forced to point downwards away from anyone lying on top of the bed. Thus, in case of accidental discharge in bed, the bullet will go downwards and not enter into anyone in the bed.

FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of a second gun compartment used in embodiments of the disclosed technology. In this version, a larger bullet trap 22 surrounds support portal 21 . Here, bullet trap 22 is trapezoidal, having slanted sides and more distance to catch a bullet misfired there-in, where the bullet can then bounce around without causing harm.

FIG. 6 shows a side elevation view of a mattress and box spring with gun compartment used in embodiments of the disclosed technology. In this view, it can readily be seen that the mattress portal 20 extends downward through the mattress 10 and joins a portal 21 in the box spring 12 , an upper portion of the portal 21 having the same length and width as the portal 20 in the mattress 10 . That is, the left, right, front, and back sides align. The gun 3 points downwards into a lower portion of portal 21 , which is surrounded by a bullet trap 22 . The top section and said lower section join at a right angle to one another in embodiments of the disclosed technology and are continuous on three sides and disjoined on a fourth. The lower portion can be narrower in one dimension (such as from the front to the back of the mattress), such as less than or equal to 50% or 25% of the length in this dimension. As such, a gun therein is aligned such that a barrel extends into the lower portion and the trigger and/or grip of the gun, which do not fit in the lower section, remain in the upper section for easy grabbing by a person. In order to further aid easy grabbing by the person, the gun compartment is in a middle ⅓ of the bed, where one's hand is when sleeping on the bed aligned substantially with the most elongated linear length of the bed from a side to side, namely, from front to the back side, parallel to the left and right side.

While the disclosed technology has been taught with specific reference to the above embodiments, a person having ordinary skill in the art will recognize that changes can be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and the scope of the disclosed technology. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. All changes that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope. Combinations of any of the methods and apparatuses described hereinabove are also contemplated and within the scope of the invention.

US 11,234,534: questions and answers

What is US Patent 11,234,534 about?

US 11,234,534, “Mattress and box spring with hidden gun compartment”, is a utility patent granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on February 1, 2022. In brief: A gun holder is situated within a box spring beneath a mattress.

Who invented US Patent 11,234,534?

The named inventor is Leon Cutler.

When was US Patent 11,234,534 filed?

The application was filed on May 10, 2020 and the patent granted on February 1, 2022.

When does US Patent 11,234,534 expire?

The nominal expiration date is May 10, 2040. 20 years from the earliest U.S. non-provisional filing date.

How many claims does US Patent 11,234,534 have?

It has 16 claims, of which 3 are independent.

How is US Patent 11,234,534 classified?

Its primary Cooperative Patent Classification symbol is A47C21/00 — attachments for beds, e.g. sheet holders or bed-cover holders (bed tables supported on the bedstead a47b23/02); ventilating, cooling or heating means in connection with bedsteads or mattresses.

Who was the patent attorney for US Patent 11,234,534?

This patent was prosecuted by Feigin & Fridman, LLC, patent attorneys in New York and New Jersey. Contact us to discuss protecting your own invention.

Other patents by Leon Cutler

  • US 10,681,990 — Mattress and box spring with hidden gun compartment
  • US 9,949,574 — Mattress and box spring with hidden gun compartment

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