Patent 7565722 was granted and assigned to YKK on July, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Various embodiments of top end stops for a slide fastener are made of resin and are each formed adjacent to an end portion of each of two rows of coupling elements provided along edge portions of a pair of fastener tapes. Each of the top end stops has a concave portion on an opposed face to the other top end stop, and each of the concave portions accomodate a slider therebetween when the slide fastener is colsed. A gap is formed between each top end stop and a coupling element disposed at the end portion of each row of the coupling elements, and an overlapping portion is formed in a bottom end of one of the top end stops, such that a coupling head of a mating coupling element is capable of overlapping the overlapping portion.