ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,300,242, issued on May 13, was assigned to Booktrack Holdings Ltd. (Auckland, New Zealand).

"System and method for the creation and playback of soundtrack-enhanced audiobooks" was invented by Paul Charles Cameron (Auckland, New Zealand), Craig Andrew Wilson (Auckland, New Zealand), Brock David Moore (Auckland, New Zealand) and Mark Anthony Buer (Adelaide, Australia).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A synchronised soundtrack for an audiobook. The soundtrack has a soundtrack timeline having one or more audio regions that are configured for synchronised playback with corresponding narration regions in the audiobook playback timeline. Each audi...