US Patent Issued to YKK on May 5 for "Plug and buckle" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,616,278, issued on May 5, was assigned to YKK Corp. (Tokyo).

"Plug and buckle" was invented by Naoyuki Ito (Toyama, Japan), Yohei Shimizu (Tokyo), Hitoshi Kaneko (Toyama, Japan) and Kenichi Yoshie (Toyama, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A plug and a socket constitute a buckle. The plug includes a plug base and a pair of legs. At least one of the pair of legs includes a first extension extending from the plug base in an insertion direction of the plug, a second extension extending from the first extension in an inward width direction of the plug, an engagement portion provided on the first extension or the second extension to be engag...