ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,246,554, issued on March 11, was assigned to BIC Violex Single Member S.A. (Anoixi, Greece).
"Writing instruments" was invented by Georgios Katsikas (Anoixi, Greece) and Dimitrios Efthimiadis (Anoixi, Greece).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A writing instrument may include a barrel having a longitudinal axis, a cartridge, a writing tip, a self-retracting system for sliding the cartridge inside the barrel between a first position wherein the writing tip extends outside the barrel and a second position wherein the writing tip is retracted, the system comprising a button configured to move the cartridge between the first and the second posit...