Retainer for drinking container

Claim 1

In combination, a drinking container having generally upright sides and a retainer device therefor, said device extending generally horizontally across the container and comprising a solid central portion and at least three resilient arms extending radially outwardly from the central portion, said central portion located at the center of the container, and said resilient arms extending radially outwardly from the central portion into engagement with the inside wall of the container, said arms resiliently engaging the inside wall of the container so as to retain the device in the container in a generally horizontal orientation, extending across the inside of the container at a height between the bottom and the top of the container, the resiliency of the arms being sufficient to allow them to retain the device over a limited range of inside diameters of the container, the central portion having a diameter between the arms of no more than 75 percent of the diameter of a circle formed by the outer tips of the resilient arms, and the arms themselves being sufficiently spaced apart that the space formed between adjacent arms, an adjacent edge of the central portion and an adjacent portion of the inside wall is small enough to retain relatively large objects such as ice cubes and the like when the container is tilted for drinking or pouring of its liquid contents and large enough to allow the free flow of liquid therethrough.