ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,405,617, issued on Sept. 2, was assigned to GEOSAT AEROSPACE & TECHNOLOGY INC. (Tainan, Taiwan).

"Multidirectional docking apparatus and methods for charging a device" was invented by Chiu-Teng Tsai (Tainan, Taiwan), Yi-Bin Lin (Tainan, Taiwan) and Chao-Wen Fu (Tainan, Taiwan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Docking apparatus and methods for providing charging power to a power storage device of an external device, the docking apparatus including a docking portion for the external device to dock with; a plurality of power-supply contacts mounted on a surface of the docking portion and arranged in an L shape; and a control circuit configured...