ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,448,176, issued on Oct. 21, was assigned to CALIFORNIA INNOVATIONS INC. (Canada).
"Insulated container fitting" was invented by Richard C. Stephens (Chicago) and Kenneth Macalino (Chicago).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A cooler insert partition is provided for a container having a hard-walled internal chamber surface. The partition has a spanning matrix and a peripherally extensive margin that defines a dimensionally variable boundary that follows the tapered chamber wall, functions as a wiper, and is deformable in at least one of (a) in-plane compression; and (b) out-of-plane deflection. The margin forms an edge of the spanning matrix. ...