ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,604,450, issued on April 14, was assigned to MURATA MANUFACTURING Co. LTD. (Kyoto, Japan).
"Case" was invented by Kiyoyuki Nakagawa (Nagaokakyo, Japan) and Yasuhiro Shimizu (Nagaokakyo, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A case includes a guide portion to guide sliding of a shutter to open and close a discharge port of a case body, a main pathway at which an end of the shutter is located when the shutter is in a state to open the discharge port, and first and second branching pathways into which the end of the shutter can be selectively inserted when the shutter is in a state to close the discharge port. When a pin is fitted into the ...