Oh, patents! Pandora Jewelry (1)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Pandora jewelry, unconnected to Pandora, the Music Genome Project®, or Pandora’s Box in Greek mythology, is patented jewelry. Actually, it is the system of “keepers” that prevent charms, baubles and beads, attached to a Pandora bracelet or necklace from bunching, that is specifically patented in Pandora jewelry.

Just in case you are unfamiliar with Pandora jewelry, the company was founded by the husband and wife team Per Enevoldsen and Winnie Liljeborg, in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1982. Pandora jewelry, as it is now known worldwide, is all about customization. Customization with hundreds of different charms and Murano glass beads that enable women to mark the meaningful milestones of their lives, and to express life’s special moments, in the creation of their bracelets and necklaces.

 The signature Pandora charm bracelet concept, enabling personal expression of lifestyles and life stories, was launched in 2000, with production to follow in Gemopolis, Thailand. In 2006, the first Pandora concept store opened in Hamburg, Germany. Since then, 2700 Pandora jewelry concept stores have opened worldwide, and two more manufacturing plants opened in Thailand to keep up with the demand for charms, and other jewelry pieces of the Pandora product lines. Indeed, 630 million charms have been sold worldwide since 2000. The state-of-the-art Thailand factory that opened in 2017 was also awarded LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Certification. Finally, since 2010, Pandora is a public company, trading on the NASDAK OMX stock exchange, in Copenhagen, Denmark.  

The patented bunching-prevention aspect of Pandora jewelry is recited in a family of 15 patents, including the US utility patent US7007507B2, titled Necklaces and bracelets with keepers. Essentially, the invention consists in any number of threaded or unthreaded bands, fixed on the bracelet or necklace strand, to which threaded or hinged keepers are attached.  The keepers restrict the movement of the beads on the necklace or bracelet strand, thus preventing them from bunching. Keepers are decorative in a way that adds to the decorative effect of the necklace. Keepers can be of any shape, and they are manufactured inexpensively with no adverse effects of the environment.

The abstract for  US7007507B2 is included below, together with the patent drawings Figure 4 and 5.

This invention is a necklace or bracelet with provisions to prevent the bunching of baubles, bangles and beads which are strung on the necklace or bracelet. Bunching is prevented by keepers which are removably attached to bands fixed at intervals on the strands of the necklaces or bracelets. Two types of keepers are disclosed, one of which has internal threads which interact with a threaded bands, and one which uses a clamshell structure to secure the keeper on a band. The keepers may have a variety of shapes for decorative effects, such as cylindrical, spherical, cubical, or pyramid shaped. [Abstract US7007507B2]

Figure 5 shows a Pandora necklace(*) without beads or keepers attached, just the two threaded 71 and unthreaded 76 bands, fixed on the strand(*) 60, with hook 15 and loop 12 closure. The two bands 71 and 76, fixed to the strand 60, are designed to enable attachment of the keepers (shown in Fig. 4) that will prevent bunching of beads(*), on the strand 60.

Figure 4 shows a plan view of a Pandora necklace with a cross-sectional view of keepers and beads attached to the necklace strand. Specifically, the patent Figure 4 drawing depicts the necklace strand 60 with hook and loop closure, the threaded band 71 with threads 72 fixed on the strand 60, suited for attachment of the keeper 30 with threads 34. The bore of the keeper 30 is designed so that it can cooperate with the fixed threaded band 71 of the strand 60. Similarly, on the other side of the strand 60, a clamshell hinged keeper 40 is shown closed and attached to a fixed and unthreaded band 76 of the strand 60, with the bore of the keeper 40, designed so that it can cooperate with the band 76 without moving, once the keeper 40  is closed.  Figure 4 also shows beads 70 strung on the strand 60. The bores 78 of the beads are designed so that the bead can slip over the hook or loop closure of the necklace, the threaded 71 and unthreaded 76 bands fixed on the strand 60,  but not past the keepers 40 and 30, once they are both threaded or attached to the strand 60.

An image of a marketed Pandora bracelet(*) is also included. This bracelet is marketed as the Pandora Rose™ In My Heart Bracelet.  It comes with two cubic-zirconia-studded clamshell keepers (called clips), and one heart charm with multicolored crystals, in between both clips. Because of the two clips, the existing charm, and any charms added to customize the bracelet, will not slip and slide around the whole bracelet.

Note (*)

In the definition of terms of this patent:

“application body adornments such as necklaces, bracelets, anklets, waist chains are termed "necklaces". Flexible chains, wire cables, bands, filaments, cords, strings, which are a component of the necklaces are termed "strands". Baubles, bangles, pendants, trinkets, and beads which are strung on a strand are termed "beads". [US7007507B2, left column, lines 9-14, p. 3] [Bold face chars mine] 

References

Pandora jewelry  [DK] website

https://us.pandora.net/

Pandora Music Genome Project®

https://www.pandora.com/about/mgp