ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,667,078, issued on June 30, was assigned to FOSHAN LEILONG ELECTRIC APPLIANCE Co. LTD (Foshan, China).

"Automatic cat excrement removing device" was invented by Shuwei Pan (Foshan, China), Yuanbin Wen (Foshan, China) and Yuan Yao (Foshan, China).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An automatic cat excrement removing device includes a pedestal, a ball compartment assembly that is detachably mounted on the pedestal. The ball compartment assembly has an axis and is configured to rotate around the axis relative to the pedestal. A peripheral contour of the ball compartment assembly is a shape of a revolving body. The peripheral contour of the ball ...