ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 14 -- United States Patent no. 12,683,304, issued on July 14, was assigned to HARTING Electric Stiftung & Co. KG (Espelkamp, Germany).

"Contact spring assembly for the self-locking contacting of a wire of an electrical conductor" was invented by Norbert Kropiewnicki (Bielefeld, Germany), Daniel Wesseler (Melle, Germany), Sergej Zier (Lohne, Germany), Nicole Spilker (Lubbecke, Germany), Arno Westpfahl (Espelkamp, Germany) and Timm Meyrose (Espelkamp, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A contact spring assembly for the self-locking contacting of a wire (28) of an electrical conductor includes a support wall (24) made of a conductive material and a contact spring (10). ...