ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 7 -- United States Patent no. 12,595,666, issued on April 7, was assigned to UNILIN BV (Wielsbeke, Belgium).
"Panel" was invented by Mark Cappelle (Staden, Belgium), Matthias Claerhout (Wielsbeke, Belgium), Bryan Rollier (Kanegem, Belgium) and Christophe Naeyaert (Jabbeke, Belgium).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The panel includes a first pair of opposite edges; these comprise male and female coupling parts-in the form of a tongue and groove and locking elements-in order to couple two such panels to each other on their first pair of opposite edges. The panel and coupling parts thereof are configured so that in a covering formed with these panels, the expansion and contra...