US Patent Issued to United States Postal Service on Jan. 20 for "Smart drop box" (Maryland, Virginia Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 20 -- United States Patent no. 12,530,650, issued on Jan. 20, was assigned to United States Postal Service (Washington).

"Smart drop box" was invented by William Albert Tartal (Baltimore), Gabriel Michael Yessin (Arlington, Va.), Dominique Danielle Strothers (Front Royal, Va.), Joram Shenhar (Fairfax, Va.), Joel Locknauth Dewnandan (Bladensburg, Md.), Terry Martin Gingell (Spotsylvania, Va.) and James Edmund Matthews (Bowie, Md.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A process for verifying an item deposit via a smart drop box. The process includes an item receptacle, a processor in communication with the item receptacle, a scanning device, and a database. The item receptacle is...