ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,685,828, issued on July 21, was assigned to SHL Medical AG (Zug, Switzerland).

"Bulk handling feature" was invented by Linda Odelberg (Ekero, Sweden), Erika Andre (Saltsjo-Boo, Sweden), Par Leander (Nacka, Sweden) and Anders Holmqvist (Varmdo, Sweden).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A support element for a component that has at least two elongated members directed generally in a common direction and having free ends, wherein the support element is arranged to connect and support the at least two elongated members."

The patent was filed on Dec. 12, 2019, under Application No. 17/418,381.

*For further information, including images, charts ...