ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,503,321, issued on Dec. 23, was assigned to BECTON DICKINSON ROWA GERMANY GMBH (Kelberg, Germany).

"Operating device for placing or retrieving bottle-like piece goods" was invented by Christoph Hellenbrand (Kaifenheim, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An operating device for piece goods is provided. The operating device includes a first gripping jaw, a second gripping jaw opposed to the first gripping jaw along a lengthwise axis and a gripping jaw guide coupled to the first and second gripping jaws. The first and second gripping jaws each have inner surfaces and a distance between upper portions of the inner surfaces is greater tha...