ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,371,933, issued on July 29, was assigned to AISIN Corp. (Kariya, Japan).
"Vehicle door stopping apparatus" was invented by Takayuki Fukuda (Kariya, Japan), Yuya Kojima (Kariya, Japan) and Kazuhiro Hibi (Kariya, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A stopping apparatus includes a drum that rotates in a first rotation direction during opening of a back door and rotates in a second rotation direction during closing of the back door; a locking member that shifts between a locking position where the locking member prevents the rotation of the drum in the first rotation direction and an unlocking position where the locking member allows the ro...