ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 14 -- United States Patent no. 12,677,991, issued on July 14, was assigned to SharkNinja Operating LLC (Needham, Mass.).
"Food processor blade lock mechanism" was invented by Ming Li Shi (Shenzhen, China), Kai Ping Hu (Shenzhen, China), Xu Sheng Deng (HuiZhou, China), Nathan Lyell (Woking, Great Britain) and Jonathan James (Witney, Great Britain).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system and method locks a processing shaft of a food processor to a blade during processing. The system includes a coupling with at least one socket. The coupling can be connected to move with the blade or the processing shaft. At least one ball bearing is positioned within a corresponding socket ...