ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,729,570, issued on Sept. 8, was assigned to Kiekert AG (Heiligenhaus, Germany).
"Lock for a motor vehicle" was invented by Udo Orzech (Velbert, Germany) and Heiko Hemmer (Essen, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The invention relates to a lock (1) for a motor vehicle, in particular a tailgate lock, comprising a locking mechanism (2) having a rotary latch (3) and having at least one pawl (4, 5), wherein the rotary latch (3) can be latched in a pre-latching position and a main latching position, having a main latching pawl (5) and having a pre-latching pawl (4), wherein a pre-latching element (17) of the locking mechanism (2) is forme...