US Patent Issued to TOYOTA MOTOR ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING NORTH AMERICA, TOYOTA JIDOSHA on March 17 for "Tailgate cable stay ramp" (Michigan Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,576,922, issued on March 17, was assigned to TOYOTA MOTOR ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING NORTH AMERICA INC. (Plano, Texas) and TOYOTA JIDOSHA K.K. (Japan).

"Tailgate cable stay ramp" was invented by Tarakorn Soonthornwinate (Plymouth, Mich.), Jayaprabhu KA Ramaswamy (Ann Arbor, Mich.), James D. Cunningham (Clarkston, Mich.), Eric Archambeau (Northville, Mich.), Yasuhisa Tsuchida (Northville, Mich.) and Stefan Hebert (Northville, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vehicle includes a tailgate configured to enclose a truck bed, a power tailgate system configured to cause the tailgate to move between a closed position and an open position,...