ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,576,298, issued on March 17, was assigned to Kompan A/S (Odense, Denmark).

"Fitness system, fitness assembly arrangement and functional fitness elements" was invented by Nikolaj Maj Bentsen (Vejle O, Denmark), Rob Boogmans (Kerteminde, Denmark) and Martin Norgaard Johansen (Skarup Fyn, Denmark).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A suspension training based functional fitness element (11, 31) comprising: an essentially planar element (22) having an upper edge, a lower edge and two side edges, said planar element (22) being designed to form a pivotable connection to a support element (32) along said upper edge of the planar element (22), a fir...