ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,256,871, issued on March 25.
"Utensil rest" was invented by Araminda Perez (Citrus Heights, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A utensil rest is provided for the temporary storage of dirty utensils during cooking or other food preparation procedures. The utensil rest includes a base plate and first and second side walls and first and second end walls extending upwardly from the base plate to define a trough. A plurality of protrusions extend upwardly from an upper surface of the base plate to support a utensil over the trough. The first and second side walls have raised ends and multiple raised intermediate portions between the raise...