ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,669,014, issued on June 30, was assigned to Carlson Pet Products Inc. (Longboat Key, Fla.).
"Hands free gate" was invented by Mark A. Flannery (Longboat Key, Fla.), Brian G. Linehan (Saint Paul, Minn.) and Elizabeth R. Volk (Saint Paul, Minn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present gate includes a barrier frame and a gate in the barrier frame. The gate is opened by inserting a foot into a foot opening in the gate, which action compresses springs disposed about pivot pins between the gate and the barrier frame and draws an extended latch downwardly and out of a latch receiver that is bottomless, which action unlatches and frees the gat...