ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,578,677, issued on March 17, was assigned to Canon K.K. (Tokyo).
"Process cartridge" was invented by Soichi Ishii (Kanagawa, Japan) and Akitoshi Toyota (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A process cartridge includes: a drum unit including a drive member and a photosensitive drum; a frame body having an opening through which a part of the drum unit is exposed; a shutter member shielding the photosensitive drum exposed through the opening; and a link member connecting the frame body and the shutter member. The shutter member is movable from a shielding position to an open position. A joint between the link member and the shut...