ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,617,495, issued on May 5, was assigned to Patrick Industries Inc. (Elkhart, Ind.).
"Marine cleat with fastener retention" was invented by Jed Hawkes (Everett, Wash.), Paul Masato Furrer (Everett, Wash.) and Paul Olliges (Everett, Wash.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A marine cleat with fastener retention is provided. The marine cleat can be a folding cleat and can include a cleat body configured to operably couple to a mounting surface of the watercraft, and a cleat head extending away from the cleat body. The cleat head can have first and second projections configured to receive a portion of a line, e.g., for mooring the watercraft. A bot...