ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,643,480, issued on June 2, was assigned to Multimatic Inc. (Markham, Canada).
"Stowable tailgate step assembly" was invented by Ryan Lausch (Markham, Canada), James Hollingworth (Markham, Canada), Ahmed Ibrahim (Markham, Canada), Muamer Hodza (Markham, Canada) and Michael Gordon Lehti (Markham, Canada).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A stowable tailgate step assembly system comprises a frame with two interconnected frame arms adapted to be mounted longitudinally in a vehicle tailgate. A slide module, releasably latched to the frame, comprises two longitudinal carrier arms which translate in relation to the frame arms, and a step assembly. T...