ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,280,705, issued on April 22.
"Beverage holder with textile compensation elements" was invented by Bernd Gayer (Weissach, Germany), Marc-Lieven Heth (Karlsruhe, Germany) and Michael Alborg (Gerlingen, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A beverage holder (1) for a motor vehicle has a receptacle (2) with a side wall (5) extending from a bottom wall (3) to an open top (4) that is farther upward. At least one elastic compensation element (7) is provided for holding differently sized drinking vessels (6). The side wall (5) has at least one opening (8), and an elastic covering (10) penetrates the opening (8) due to its biasing to form the el...