ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,664,962, issued on June 23, was assigned to KAWAI MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS MANUFACTURING Co. LTD. (Hamamatsu, Japan).
"Keyboard device" was invented by Akihiro Suzuki (Hamamatsu, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "In a keyboard device, a white-key actuator and a black-key actuator are arranged so as not to coincide in position with each other in a front-rear direction. A common hammer member is employed for a white-key hammer and for a black-key hammer. The common hammer member is provided with a white-key sliding surface to be pressed by the white-key actuator and a black-key sliding surface to be pressed by the black-key actuator. The whi...