US 5,415,297 · Granted 1995-05-16
The Modular CD Rack Patent That Lets You Stack and Expand
Imagine a CD storage rack made of side frames and horizontal rods that you can stack and connect together like building blocks. Slide little metal stoppers along the rods to hold your discs steady, even if you don't fill the whole rack. The genius is that you can add more frames and rods to make it taller without redesigning the whole thing.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a modular storage rack system with removable side frames that slot together vertically, horizontal rods that thread through holes in those frames, and a sliding abutment (stopper) that can move along each rod to support optical disc cases at any height. What's protected here is the specific combination of how the grooves and tongues lock frames together, how the rods insert into holes on opposite sides to create expandable units, and how the sliding stopper prevents cases from tipping when the rack isn't full.
Why it matters
This patent solved a real problem in the 1990s when CD collections were exploding in size and people needed flexible, space-efficient storage. The modular design meant you could start with a small rack and grow it without throwing the old one away or buying an entirely new system. For a company like Lynk making home storage products, this kind of clever interlocking mechanism created a defensible product line that competitors couldn't simply copy without licensing.
Real-world use
Every time someone bought a CD rack in the 1990s and 2000s, they were likely using this patented sliding-stopper and modular frame design to organize their music, movies, and software collections without the cases toppling over.
Original USPTO abstract
A modular storage rack for optical disc storage cases consisting of a plurality of rods extending between, and supported by, a pair of side frames. A slide abutment is removably connected to at least one of the rods for positionable sliding movement therealong, such that the abutment acts as a vertical support when less than the maximum number of cases is positioned upon the rack. Each side frame includes a groove arrangement in the top and a mating tongue arrangement at the bottom such that plural side frames may be stacked one upon the other in a stable manner. Each side frame also includes a tube support holes at each side thereof sized to receive an associated one of the rods. As such, the rods may be inserted within the receiving holes of two side frames to define a rack of single unit length. Thereafter, an additional pair of rods may be inserted into the receiving holes on an opposite side of one of the previous side frames, and a third side frame connected to the free ends of these additional rods. With this arrangement, a rack having two units length is provided by using only three side frames.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 5,415,297
- Filing date
- 1993-10-26
- Grant date
- 1995-05-16
- Assignee
- Lynk, Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- KLEIN; RICHARD B., SERSLEV; CHRIS, MALIK; VIJAY S.
- CPC class
- G11B33/0405
Want to file your own patent?
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