US Patent Issued to Ford Global Technologies on June 30 for "Vehicle and method of controlling a powered rear closure based on trailer connection" (Michigan Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,669,009, issued on June 30, was assigned to Ford Global Technologies LLC (Dearborn, Mich.).

"Vehicle and method of controlling a powered rear closure based on trailer connection" was invented by Adam Merz (New Boston, Mich.), Ronald M. Lovasz (Allen Park, Mich.) and Nicholas Wykoff (Dearborn, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vehicle having a powered rear closure located at a rear end of the vehicle, actuatable by an actuator between a closed position and an open position, a trailer hitch at the rear end of the vehicle for connecting a trailer to the vehicle, a trailer detection system for detecting the trailer connected to the vehi...