US Patent Issued to Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Toyota Jidosha on March 17 for "Vehicle inside door lever assembly" (Michigan Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,577,817, issued on March 17, was assigned to Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. (Plano, Texas) and Toyota Jidosha K.K. (Toyota, Japan).

"Vehicle inside door lever assembly" was invented by James D. Cunningham (Clarkston, Mich.) and Justin B. Norris (Brighton, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vehicle inside door lever assembly includes a frame, a lever rotatably mounted on the frame so as to be rotatable with respect to the frame, and a torsion spring structured and operably connected to the lever and the frame so as to rotationally bias the lever in a first rotational direction, toward a closed and latched...