ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,416,850, issued on Sept. 16, was assigned to Peak Design (San Francisco).
"Close-pack, high-aspect-ratio camera tripod" was invented by Robb Jankura (San Francisco), Matthew Thomas James (San Francisco), Peter Dering (San Francisco), Peter Lockett (San Francisco), Arthur Viger (San Francisco), Andrew Wheeler Gans (San Francisco) and Kiran Malladi (San Francisco).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Tripods inclusive of a hub defining a center bore; a set of legs, each leg in the set of legs pivotably or retractably coupled to the hub; a center column comprising a first non-circular cross-section configured to translate within the center bore; ...