ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,576,292, issued on March 17.
"Winch" was invented by Kurtis D. Scepaniak (Cold Spring, Minn.), Michael S. Marquette (Melrose, Minn.) and Travis M. Marquette (Bowlus, Minn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A winch has a cable reel, a winch body capturing the cable reel, and an indexing lock. Two separately actuated pawls provide a first level of fail-safe protection. A drive coupler enables rapid torque wrench cable tension adjustment. Locking pin holes on the cable reel and winch body are arranged so a locking member can pass through only one visible winch body locking pin hole, with the other visible holes at least partially blocked, ind...