US Patent Issued to 3M Innovative Properties on July 21 for "Vent assemblies" (Minnesota Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,686,019, issued on July 21, was assigned to 3M Innovative Properties Co. (St. Paul, Minn.).

"Vent assemblies" was invented by Ryan D. Erickson (Roseville, Minn.), Anna M. Hegdahl (Maple Grove, Minn.), Stephen C.P. Joseph (Woodbury, Minn.), Steven J. Tarnowski (Mahtomedi, Minn.) and Ryan P. Birringer (Minneapolis).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Vent assemblies for reservoirs and other closed systems. The vent assemblies include one or more apertures in a wall of the reservoir. A closure member is retained on the external surface of the reservoir by a closure member retainer and includes a first component and a second component, the second ...