ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,589,697, issued on March 31, was assigned to SUBARU Corp. (Tokyo).
"Vehicle roof-rail structure" was invented by Atsushi Sato (Tokyo), Yasuhiko Irie (Tokyo), Kenji Nakazawa (Tokyo) and Tatsuya Kawashima (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vehicle roof-rail structure includes a rail body extending in a front-rear direction, and a leg member with which the rail body is fixed to a roof panel of a vehicle body. The leg member includes a protector that is in contact with the roof panel, a leg disposed on the protector, a fastener including a bolt projecting from a bottom of the leg and fastening the leg member to the roof panel with the ...