ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,586,989, issued on March 24, was assigned to Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co. Ltd. (Osaka, Japan).
"Discharge device" was invented by Hidetoshi Hata (Osaka, Japan), Yohei Ishigami (Osaka, Japan) and Makoto Imai (Shiga, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A discharge device includes discharge electrode, counter electrode, and a voltage application device. Discharge electrode includes distal end portion. Counter electrode is disposed so as to face distal end portion of discharge electrode with a gap provided therebetween. The voltage application device applies a voltage between discharge electrode and counter electrode to g...