ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,304,291, issued on May 20.
"Vehicle with a roof rack system under a soft or removable roof" was invented by George J. Schafer Jr. (Pennington, N.J.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vehicle structure with an upper framework that consists of a driver side frame element, a passenger side frame element and possible lateral crossbars. An open area is interposed between the driver side frame element and the passenger side frame element. The vehicle has a roof system to selectively cover and expose the open area. When the roof system is closed, a gap space exists between the open area and the interior of the roof system. Removable mounts are bo...