ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,737,338, issued on Sept. 15, was assigned to Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Redmond, Wash.).

"Hybrid spatial index" was invented by Bosko Mihic (Belgrade, Serbia) and Teodor Delibasic (Novi Beograd, Serbia).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Example implementations include a method, apparatus, and computer-readable medium configured for indexing records using a hybrid spatial index. The hybrid spatial index is an integer that indicates a spatial location of an object. The method, apparatus, or computer-readable medium may associate an integer spatial index with a record of an object. The integer spatial index indicates a stripe of cells...