ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,343,653, issued on July 1.

"Three-dimensional magnetic block system and method" was invented by Pamela L. Jennings (Washington), Alan Bengtson (Atlanta), Elias Bachaalany (Halat, Lebanon) and Imad Maalouf (El Metn, Lebanon).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Disclosed are methods and systems of blocks with magnets, magnetically-attractive non-magnetic elements, and magnetic detectors. The methods and systems facilitate user attachment and detachment of the blocks to each other and detection of which face of which block is attached to which face of which other block, and in what orientation. The blocks can be comprised of multiple regular conve...