ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,691,015, issued on July 28, was assigned to APLIX (Le Cellier, France).

"Retaining device, absorbent item comprising such a device, and method for manufacturing such a device" was invented by Lionel Picot (Le Cellier, France).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Retainer device comprising a base extending along a longitudinal direction and a plurality of retainer elements extending from the upper face of the base, each retainer element having a value according to a first geometric dimension. The retainer device has at least two retainer zones and an intermediate zone disposed between the two retainer zones and connecting the two retainer zones,...