ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,534,317, issued on Jan. 27, was assigned to Canon K.K. (Tokyo).
"Sheet feeding apparatus" was invented by Atsushi Ikeda (Kanagawa, Japan), Yasuhito Tsubakimoto (Tokyo) and Masaaki Ishihara (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A sheet feeding apparatus includes a detection unit provided to be movable with respect to a sheet stacking portion and configured to detect a sheet by causing a contact portion to come into contact with an uppermost sheet stacked on a stacking surface. A bottom portion of the sheet stacking portion forms a part of a bottom portion of the sheet feeding apparatus, the sheet stacking portion is provided with a throug...