ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,442,249, issued on Oct. 14.

"Narrow ingress and egress step assembly and methods for accessing lifted boat in a covered dock" was invented by Ryan Charles Cullmann (St. Charles, Mo.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A step assembly includes a horizontally extending mounting foot section, a vertically extending head section, a single sloping support member interconnecting the mounting foot section and head section, and a step member having a number of integrally formed horizontal steps extending above and attached to the single sloping support member. The step assembly is narrow in a width dimension for use on a narrow dock section, and the ...