ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,687,334, issued on July 21, was assigned to COWAY Co. Ltd. (Gongju-si, South Korea).

"Water purifier" was invented by Hyoungmin Moon (Seoul, South Korea), Sung Han Yun (Seoul, South Korea), Gukwon Lee (Seoul, South Korea) and Sung Kon Cho (Seoul, South Korea).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A water purifier includes a water purification unit, and an ice making unit. The water purification unit includes: a water filter for filtering introduced raw water to provide the purified water and unfiltered living water; a purified water tank including a first storage for storing unfiltered water, a second storage for storing the purified water disch...