ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,316,374, issued on May 27, was assigned to Attochron LLC (Lexington, Va.).

"Free space optical communications using a spectrally-equalizing amplifier" was invented by Thomas M. Chaffee (Lexington, Va.) and Wayne H. Knox (Rochester, N.Y.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Systems and methods are described for transmitting information optically. For instance, a system may include an optical source configured to generate a beam of light. The system may include at least one modulator configured to encode data on the beam of light to produce an encoded beam of light/encoded plurality of pulses. The system may include a spectrally-equalizing ampli...