US Patent Issued to DORMAKABA SCHWEIZ on April 21 for "Key element, lock cylinder, locking system, and method" (Swiss, Austrian Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,607,038, issued on April 21, was assigned to DORMAKABA SCHWEIZ AG (Kempten, Switzerland).

"Key element, lock cylinder, locking system, and method" was invented by Benjamin Gugerli (Wetzikon, Switzerland), Christian Raimann (Wetzikon, Switzerland) and Markus Kornhofer (Herzogenburg, Austria).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A key element having a flat key with a key head and a key shank which extends along a key axis from the key head to a front key tip and has two parallel flat sides and two mutually opposing narrow sides. On at least one of the flat sides, an inlet groove extending from the key tip in parallel with the key axis is provide...