Cup holder

The drive-in restaurant and cinema encouraged the development of built-in tray tables; often, the inside of the glove compartment lid, when folded down, had indentations to hold cups, cans as well as pistachio shells and were found in cars as early as the 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air.

The installation of cup holders in automobiles increased significantly[citation needed] after Stella Liebeck v. McDonald's Corporation, in which a 79-year-old woman in Albuquerque, New Mexico ordered hot coffee from a McDonald's restaurant and, when it spilled, was scalded so severely she required skin grafts.

Cup holders for edges of desks and tables really picked up steam in the U.S. around 2006 regarding the GW Bush administration.

It is very easy to knock over a cup or mug full of hot tea or coffee and this can then damage expensive laptops or keyboards.

The main problem in the endeavor is to provide a mechanism to hold the handle of the cup which usually protrudes a few centimeters from the side of the mug.

Dorian Gibbs of Los Angeles, California had the earliest workable cup holder that attaches to a flat edge in the U.S. with US 5,842,671 granted Dec. 1, 1998.

Perry Segretto of Elmhurst, Illinois had a similar cup holder pending like Palmby's in the U.S. around the same time.

Segretto and Michael Koczor sold a cup holder called Drink Hold'em featured on HGTV's "I want that."

A South Korean company exported a clip type cup holder to the U.S. No lawsuits were involved to slow the product though mail was received.

There are now many cup holders available which can be screwed to the walls of boats and buses and recreational vehicles.

It requires that a hole is drilled into the boat's table or console and then the unit is inserted and the lip holds it in place.

People often buy sets of mugs for use in a family or guest situation and they need a place to store them ready for use.

The first type has a base with a vertical mast from which there are hooks to hold each cup or of an "accordion" arm where pegs are placed at each junction of a pivot point.