ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,552,055, issued on Feb. 17, was assigned to Slice Safety Cutter Inc. (Irvine, Calif.).
"Retractable utility knife" was invented by Robert Joseph Gallegos (Fremont, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A utility knife configured with a retractable cutting blade that is extended and retracted by a blade actuation mechanism. The blade actuation mechanism employs a blade trigger assembly and a blade carriage assembly that are operably connected in variety of configurations. Certain configurations of the blade actuation mechanism utilize a rack-and-pinion arrangement between the blade trigger assembly and the blade carriage assembly, which e...