ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,601,499, issued on April 14, was assigned to BSH Hausgerate GmbH (Munich).

"Food preparation system" was invented by Carlos Franco Gutierrez (Saragossa, Spain), Teresa Del Carmen Marzo Alvarez (Saragossa, Spain), Maria Parra Borderias (Saragossa, Spain), Agostina Rodriguez Larrosa (Saragossa, Spain) and Beatriz Villanueva Valero (Saragossa, Spain).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A food preparation system includes a control unit designed to guide through a process step of a process and to initiate, during guidance through the process, a machine-user interaction which is independent of the guidance through the process."

The patent was file...