Container With Tethered Closure

Abstract

Hand-held container-and-closure systems wherein the container and closure are attached to each other with a flexible tether in the form of a loop, and mounting and demounting the closure from the container requires the container and/or closure to slide along the tether.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A container-and-closure system that comprises:
 a container for housing a cosmetic or personal care product;   a closure that cooperates with the container; wherein:
 the container and closure are supported on a tether, and mounting and demounting the closure from the container requires the container and/or closure to slide along the tether. 
   
     
     
         2 . The container-and-closure system of  claim 1  wherein the tether passes through one or more container channels that are located on an exterior surface of the container. 
     
     
         3 . The container-and-closure system of  claim 2  wherein the tether passes through two or more closure channels that are located on an exterior surface of the closure. 
     
     
         4 . The container-and-closure system of  claim 3  wherein the container has first and second channels that are equally spaced around the container, and the closure has first and second channels that are equally spaced around the closure. 
     
     
         5 . The container-and-closure system of  claim 1  wherein some or all of the tether is flexible in all directions. 
     
     
         6 . The container-and-closure system of  claim 4  wherein the tether is an open-ended loop that has first and second end portions, wherein the first end portion of the tether passes through the first closure channel and the first container channel; and the second end portion of the tether passes through the second closure channel and the second container channel, and the first and second end portions of the tether are unable to back out of their respective container channels. 
     
     
         7 . The container-and-closure system of  claim 6  wherein:
 the container has a neck with screw threads, and the first and second container channels are located on the neck and are able to rotate around the neck; 
 the closure has a lateral wall that supports screw threads that are able to engage the screw threads of the container, and the first and second closure channels are located on the lateral wall of the closure; and 
 the first and second end portions of the tether are sufficiently rigid so that when the screw threads of the closure engage the screw threads of the container, the first and second container channels to rotate with the closure. 
 
     
     
         8 . The container-and-closure system of  claim 5  wherein first and second end portions of the tether are fixedly attached to the closure, so that the closure cannot slide on the tether. 
     
     
         9 . The container-and-closure system of  claim 3  wherein the tether is formed as a closed loop that passes through the one or more container channels and through the two or more closure channels. 
     
     
         10 . The container-and-closure system of  claim 1  wherein the tether passes into a closure channel on an exterior surface of the closure, emerges from the closure channel on an interior surface of the closure, then passes into a container channel on an interior surface of the container, and emerges from the container channel on an exterior surface of the container. 
     
     
         11 . The container-and-closure system of  claim 3  wherein the container channels extend at least 90% of the length of the container and the closure channels extend at least 90% of the length of the closure.