ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,310,465, issued on May 27.
"Bail alignment marking device" was invented by David Lee Smith (North Bend, Ore.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention is used to mark the location on a piece of jewelry being constructed where the bail or embellishments are to be placed. It uses a stationary vee-shaped stop and a vee-shaped planar sliding marking guide to clamp the jewelry piece by pressing against the bezel that forces the jewelry piece into a position to be marked or scribed on front and/or back of the piece. This allows slots where the marking tool is placed to be perfectly aligned with the centerline of the bezel. The slidi...