ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,578,542, issued on March 17, was assigned to PPC BROADBAND INC. (East Syracuse, N.Y.).

"Fiber optic component holder having a variably sized receiving portion for holding various sizes of fiber optical components or multiple fiber optical components" was invented by Stefan Donchev (Milton Keynes, Great Britain) and Afzal V. Abdulsalam (Edathala, India).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A fiber optic component holder for holding various sizes of fiber optical components or multiple fiber optical components includes a fiber optical component holder portion configured to hold a fiber optical component. The fiber optical component holder portio...