ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,304,042, issued on May 20.

"Locking pliers" was invented by Ming-Chieh Wu (Taichung, Taiwan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A locking pliers includes a pliers-body, a rotating shaft and an operating and pivoting unit. The pliers-body includes a fixed jaw, a movable jaw and a jaw end member disposed on the movable jaw. The rotating shaft is rotatably connected with the fixed jaw about a pivot axis and is movable along the pivot axis, and has clamp and insert ends. A clamp member is disposed on the clamp end. A pivot member extends through the fixed jaw and connected with the rotating shaft and is operable to move the rotating shaft close t...