US Patent Issued to RectorSeal on June 30 for "Drain stopper and strainer" (Texas Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,668,961, issued on June 30, was assigned to RectorSeal LLC (Houston).

"Drain stopper and strainer" was invented by Sanjay Ahuja (Katy, Texas) and Harold Kent Beck (Copper Canyon, Texas).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A drain stopper includes a cap, a seal and a strainer engaged with the cap, and a gripping element engaged with the strainer. The gripping element is resilient and has a generally tubular shape with longitudinal notches, which give it a segmented annular shape. A person grips and squeezes the gripping element to insert the stopper/strainer into a drain pipe, after which the gripping element expands and grips an inside wall of...