ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,263,680, issued on April 1, was assigned to BROTHER KOGYO K.K. (Nagoya, Japan).

"Liquid discharge apparatus" was invented by Mikio Ogawa (Nagoya, Japan), Rikuto Mitoka (Nagoya, Japan) and Motoki Yamada (Ichinomiya, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "There is provided a liquid discharge apparatus including a head configured to eject a liquid from nozzles being open in a nozzle surface, a liquid absorbing wiper, and a support supporting the liquid absorbing wiper. The supporter is movable relative to the head, between a first position where the liquid absorbing wiper is in contact with the nozzle surface, and a second position where the ...