ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,247,425, issued on March 11, was assigned to A. RAYMOND ET CIE (Grenoble, France).

"Lock for holding a first part to a second part and assembly of a first part and a second part" was invented by Christian Kolb (Binzen, Germany), Alexander Ruff (Weil am Rhein, Germany) and Daniel Schreiyack (Weil am Rhein-Otlingen, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A lock for holding a first part to a second part comprises a holding body with a receptacle for receiving a protruding part of the second part. The holding body has a wall that borders the receptacle and a locking element, the locking element having a protrusion, whereby the locking eleme...